using an IF statement in Excel?

Question

I have a list of 30000 last names, most of which I don't care about, but 200 or so I do. And I have a table of the names that I do care about. I want to be able to flag the cells which contain the names that I care about, so I can just sort out the other names. I named my table with the good names "goodnames", so I figure I should be able to say something like: =if(A1=goodnames,"good", "bad"), but this logic doesn't seem to work. Any suggestions

Answer 1

I'm going to tell you exactly how to do what you want.

1. Select the cells with the list of good names and name the range "GoodNames" Once the cells are selected, an easy way to name the range, is to click on the box to the left of the formula bar, type the name, and hit return.

2. Let's say your 30,000 names start in cell A1 and go down rows. Insert a new column B. In B1 type the following formula:

=VLOOKUP(A1,GoodNames,1,FALSE)

Copy and paste the formula in B1 down all the rows in col. B through the end of your data.

3. Now in col. B, the values will be either names that are good names, or the error value, #NA.

4. Sort on col. B, and all the #NAs will be first, followed by the good names.

5. If I was doing it, I'd save the workbook under a new name, then in that workbook, I'd select the #NA rows and delete them.

Answer 2

hmmmmm, =if (a1=goodnames, "good", "bad") is not a valid formula. first and foremost the goodnames doesn't stand for anything. it's not like proramming that you just declare goodnames and excel can read it. good names is just another simple word. you cannot simply tag a last name if it's good or bad via the adjective itself "GOOD' or "BAD". excel can only check if it's a number, if it has spaces, it's length or many others.

i don't know what logic your trying to imply but im willing to help. t

try this:
1. open a worksheet. create sheet A and sheet B.
2. Sheet A should contain your 30 000 last names and so...
3. Sheet B should contain all the good last names you know.
4. Now run the look up wizard and you should be able to tag the good last names in sheet a based on the good last names you defined under sheet b.

if you have this formula =if(A1=goodnames, "good", "bad" ) - excel will look for the last name "goodnames" and will return "good' or 'bad" word in another column.

hope this makes sense. email me if you have questions.

Answer 3

Use a vertical lookup. Take the list of goodnames, and use the vertical lookup to get data from the main list of names. (Look in Help for details. Basically, the Vertical Lookup lets you look up somthing on one table and put the data on another table.

Another way would be to flag the goodnames with a brand new field, and sort on it. (You'd have to pick which names are goodnames by hand if you do it the second way, but it might be faster than setting up the table with vertical lookup.)

Answer 4

Make sure your list of good name and your list of 30000 names have exactly the same headers.
Name the list of 30000 names "database"
Name the list of good names "criteria"

Do an advanced filter, your goodnames are automatically filtered out.
Type "good" on the next column and fill down.
Or copy to a new sheet or do whatever you want.

Answer 5

Ever tried an autofilter?

Click the table-select button - left of A, above #1. This will highlight the whole file. Now, click Data, Autofilter. You will see a down arrow on each column header.

If there is something unique about the names you want - for example a zipcode, you would click the down arrow on the address column or zipcode column and you will get a list of the entries you made. If you wanted to pull up all those in a particular zip, click on it. You can then copy or cut/paste these to a new file, whatever.

If you created a column for "keepers" or whatever, and typed an x in the cell, you could filter for "keepers" = x.

Get the idea?

Answer 6

=If(situation, genuine cost, pretend cost) So case in point: = if (a6<0,'unfavorable','effective') you could also nest if statements interior the genuine/pretend area to make small genuine pretend decision trees

Answer 7

This needs to be explained in detail. can you message me at [e-mail] on yahoo messenger.. i can help u on that instantly..

did u try checking this site www.excelgoodies.com there are excel consultants online ready to help u on live chat.

may be u can give them a try..