Can't Use an IF statement, so now what??

[New Hope UMC]

In columns C2:M1978 (sometimes even more columns) is the data I need
to put together; in each row of each column is either a 1 or is blank.
In column B2:B1978 I want to do the following:
In cell B2 =if(C2="","",C1)&"; "&if(D2="","",D1)&....so on and so on.
Limited to 7 embedded if statements is my issue as the columns can
sometimes exceed 20+
Any ideas? I know I have done this in the past but been away from
excel for so long I cannot remember....A duuuh moment
Thanks
Hans

 

[Pete_UK]

The limit applies to nested functions in earlier versions of Excel
(before 2007), but the construct that you have is not nested, so you
could continue like that for as many columns as you have. I would
suggest amending it to this, though:

=IF(C2="","",C1&"; ")&IF(D2="","",D1&"; ")& ... etc

so that you don't get a string of semicolons for blank cells (though,
of course, that might be what you want).

Hope this helps.

Pete