You'll need to show us exactly what is in your formulae, and explain more
clearly what your problem is.

=if(left A1,2)=or("cd","ef","gh"),1,2) would not be a valid formula, as the
parentheses don't match.
When you've sorted out the parentheses, you've still got =OR("cd","ef","gh")
which is feeding text strings into a function that wants Boolean inputs, so
it gives a #VALUE! error.

Start again, but this time be more precise with the wording of your
question.
--
David Biddulph

"MusicMan" wrote in message
...
following returns true even if false
a1=ab1234
b1=if(left A1,2)=or("cd","ef","gh"),1,2) test if A1=cd or ef or gh, true
1, false 2
the above should return 2 false but returns 1 true in error?
I tried formula evaluation and it shows "ab"=false but then evalutes
combined to true in error.