IF command, limit to number of entries?

[timhiley]

I am designing a spreadsheet to monitor progress through levels in th
English National curriculum. Children are given a level at the end o
the year from w, 1c,1b,1a,2c,2b,2a etc up to 5a.

I am trying to convert the text eg "2a" into a value ie 7. I hav
managed to do this using the IF function however when i get up to
certain number of if statements it seems to stop excepting any more. I
there a limit and if so is there a way around it.

The formula I am using is as shown below.

=IF(S5="w",1,(IF(S5="1c",2,(IF(S5="1b",3,(IF(S5="1a",4,(IF(S5="2c",5,(IF(S5="2b",6,(IF(S5="2a",7,(IF(S5="3c",8,"error")))))))))))))))

I want the formula to continue from where it say "error" t
(if(s5="3b",9,(if(S5="3a",10,(if(s5="4c",11,(............ etc, etc

Where it says "error" at the end the sequence should continue all th
way to "5a"

I am new to using excel in this way and any help would be muc
appreciated

 

[Guest]

One approach is to use a VLOOKUP table. See:

http://www.contextures.com/xlFunctions02.html

 

[timhiley]

thanks very much, this solves my problem