Hmmm...... I say only the *well-trained* programmers. I have known people having a job title of "programmer" but have no idea of Boolean.

Unfortunately, not everyone uses Excel is a programmer. Administrative assistants for one use MS Office heavily but they may not be familiar with Boolean.

Epinn

"Biff" wrote in message ...
Boolean is well know to programmers.

http://www.sjsu.edu/depts/Museum/boole.html

Biff

"Epinn" wrote in message
...
Thank you all for an interesting discussion. I understand all the comments
prior to this.

As a matter of fact, Dave has spelt out my "all-time" concern. As much as I
like SUMPRODUCT (just using it as an example), I have a feeling that some
"bosses" may not like it because they are not familiar with it. I am not
surprised that I'll be asked to use the lowest common denominator so that
everyone who needs to maintain the spreadsheet(s) can understand the
formulae and do his/her job.

Back to Boolean and IF(AND......(OR, I think at the college, Boolean is not
taught. If that is the case, probably Boolean may not be widely
accepted/recognized by entry level personnel in the workplace?? Boolean is
new to me (well, I am new to Excel anyway) and presents a "challenge" at
this point. So, I'll give it some practice and I don't mind taking the
"risk." By the way, Boolean is not covered in the Excel Help files if I am
not mistaken. Bob, am I considered a risk taker then? <G Another story
.......

At this general learning stage, I always try to come up with more than one
solution to a specific issue. This is how I learn.

Boolean is not as "easy" to decipher but the formula is usually shorter and
cleaner.

Wonder what others think.

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