Hi Dave

Most of the time I am building applications for clients who care not one
jot what the formulae are (they don't even see them), and would
certainly not be interested in understanding them - that's why they ask
me to build the application as opposed to doing it for themselves
anyway.

I do agree, that the IF THEN ELSE construct may be clearer for most
people to follow the logic, and when correcting people's postings, or
offering suggestions, most of the time I do use IF THEN construct.
Sometimes I do offer that there is an alternative which requires fewer
IF's.

My response to Epinn was merely an expression of my personal favourite
construct of the two he proposed.

But variety is the spice of life<bg

--
Regards

Roger Govier


"Dave F" wrote in message
...
Of course, if you're the only one using the spreadsheet you should use
whatever formula you want as long as it returns the correct result!

My experience has been, however, that many people are either unable or
unwilling to take the time to figure out what an unfamiliar formula
does.
--
Brevity is the soul of wit.


"Epinn" wrote:

It is a long story ...... A lot happened before this post and only
Bob and Roger understand. Hence, their names are part of the subject
line. Comments are welcome from all.

Dave, your points are very well taken. Before I understood Boolean,
I wasn't comfortable with the "implicity" as described by you. Yes,
I agree that it may be more logical to use the IF/AND/OR syntax.
Thank you for sharing.

I really like Bob's formula which should satisfy "simplicity" and
"explicity."

Roger, thank you for your kind words.

Epinn

"Epinn" wrote in message
...
Hi Bob and Roger (in alphabetical order),

I just want to let you know that gradually I am detaching Boolean
from SUMPRODUCT and I am learning to use Boolean outside of
SUMPRODUCT. However, I still need SUMPRODUCT as a stepping stone to
write my formula. You won't believe what I did.

Column A = age Column B = eye colour

I have this formula:

=IF(AND(A230,IF(OR(B2="blue",B2="brown"),1,0)=1), TRUE,FALSE)

But I don't like the 1, 0, AND, OR etc. Then I think: how would I
write it if it were SUMPRODUCT.

So I wrote my SUMPRODUCT formula using * and +, A2:A10, B2:B10 etc.
as if I was doing a count. When I was happy with my SP formula, then
I changed it to IF and converted the range back to a single cell
(e.g. A2). I ended up with the following:

=IF((A230)*((B2="blue")+(B2="brown")),TRUE,FALSE)

So, this is my "joke" of the day. Next time, I should be able to use
Boolean at will without using SP as a "bridge."

Do you prefer the second IF formula to the first? Are there any
circumstances when the first formula has an advantage over the
second? I should feel free to use Boolean, right?

Please feel free to comment and I don't need any guarantee on your
answers. <G

Epinn