Entering the First Logical_test Argument
The Logical_test argument is always a comparison between two pieces of data. This data can be numbers, cell references, the results of formulas, or even text data.
In this tutorial we have three salary levels that determine an employee's annual deduction.
- less than $30,000
- between $30,000 and $49,999
- $50,000 or more
A single IF function can compare two levels, but the third salary level is what requires us to use the second (nested) IF function.
The first comparison will be between the employee's annual salary, located in cell E7, with the threshold salary of $30,000. If the employee's salary is less than $30,000 we always want to multiply it by 6% to find the annual deduction.
We place a comparison operator between the two items being compared. Since we want to know if E6 is less than $30,000, we will use the Less Than operator " < " .
A complete list of the comparison operators that can be used with the IF function can be found in here.
Tutorial Steps
- Click on the Logical_test line in the dialog box
- Click on cell E7 to add this cell reference to the Logical_test line.
- Press the less than key " < " on the keyboard.
- Type 30000 after the less than symbol.
- Note: Do not enter the dollar sign ( $ ) or a comma separator ( , ) with the above amount. An Invalid error message will appear at the end of the Logical_test line if either of these symbols is entered along with the data.
- The completed logical test should read: E7 < 30000
