dealing with text - I need to set up an IF THEN situation

[paulrus]

I am a complete newbie to Excel, so I'm guessing this is a no brainer for most of you.

I have a column that has a series of state abbreviations. I want to set up a formula in another column that looks at the state abbreviations and basically says "IF E:E = AL, CT, DE, KY, etc. THEN H:H = whatever"

This seems like such a simple task, but I can't figure it out!

Help!

Thanks

Paul

[Aladin Akyurek]

On 2002-04-15 08:01, paulrus wrote:
I am a complete newbie to Excel, so I'm guessing this is a no brainer for most of you.

I have a column that has a series of state abbreviations. I want to set up a formula in another column that looks at the state abbreviations and basically says "IF E:E = AL, CT, DE, KY, etc. THEN H:H = whatever"

This seems like such a simple task, but I can't figure it out!

Help!

Thanks

Paul

In H1 enter and copy down:

=IF(OR(E1={"AL","CT","DE","KY"}),"Whatever","")

[paulrus]

THANK YOU!!!
Of course, I forgot 1/2 of my question.
the other half would be - if it does not = "Whatever" then it = "Something Else"

Does that make sense?

So if it is AL, CT, DE, KY, etc. it = "Whatever" but if it does not = "Whatever" it = "Something Else"....

Thanks again for the help on this beginner problem!

[Brian from Maui]

Maybe a VLOOKUP?

Column A - state abbreviations
Column B - name of states
In C1 =VLOOKUP(C2,A1:B50,2)

Enter HI in C2 and C1 returns Hawaii!
Column A is sorted

[paulrus]

Already figured it out:

=IF(OR(E1={"AL","CT","DE","KY"}),"Whatever","Something Else")

Thanks!!!!

[Aladin Akyurek]

On 2002-04-15 08:16, paulrus wrote:
THANK YOU!!!
Of course, I forgot 1/2 of my question.
the other half would be - if it does not = "Whatever" then it = "Something Else"

Does that make sense?

So if it is AL, CT, DE, KY, etc. it = "Whatever" but if it does not = "Whatever" it = "Something Else"....

Thanks again for the help on this beginner problem!

=IF(OR(E1={"AL","CT","DE","KY"}),"Whatever","")

Last "" is "Something else"; thusly:

=IF(OR(E1={"AL","CT","DE","KY"}),"Whatever","Something else")

Examine also what Brian is suggesting.