Question

[Amber12321]

I have a question about Excel:

The answers for the 20 questions are listed below. Use this information to
write functions that will grade each answer, giving 1 point for a correct
answer and 0 otherwise. Assume that all answers are in lowercase letters;
therefore, the function that tests the answer to the first question should
check for a "c" rather than a "C"

If there's any help to that, please write back

 

[J]

I would upper the answer not attempt to exclude an upper letter, just in
case the case is not correct.

Are the questions numbered? Or just in order?

Where is the answer key located? Is it in table form? Is a column included
that identifies the question? By number?

Will there be a need to change the answers and key for future use of the
worksheet?

Will there be a need to have history kept for various "tests?"

More than one person per test?

And so on.

 

[JoeU2004]

I have a question about Excel:
The answers for the 20 questions are listed below. Use this information
to write functions that will grade each answer

Sounds more like your teacher has an Excel question for you to answer.

Assume that all answers are in lowercase letters; therefore, the function
that tests the answer to the first question should check for a "c" rather
than a "C"

Is the assignment really to distinguish between "c" and "C"? That's not
clear to me from the wording of the assignment.

Usually, Excel does not distinguish between uppercase and lowercase. So if
we may "assume all answers are in lowercase", it does not matter whether we
test for "c" or "C". For example, if(A1="c",1,0) returns 1 whether A1 is
"c" or "C".

However, some functions do make a distinction between uppercase and
lowercase. For example, find("C",A1) returns 6, not 3, if A1 is the text
"abcABC" (without quotes). Perhaps your teacher is anticipating that you
will use -- or even expects you to use -- one of the functions that makes a
distinction, and he/she is saying that you don't need to be so robust as to
handle both cases.

(On the other hand, if there were the case, the teacher missed an
opportunity to teach you how to write robust formulas by encouraging you to
use the UPPER or LOWER functions instead of making assumptions.)

If you believe the assignment is indeed to distinguish between uppercase and
lowercase -- that is, not to recognize uppercase (but then I would quibble
with the teacher's wording of the assignment) -- there are many ways to do
it. Exactly what is best for you depends on how advanced the class is, what
you've learned so far, and what Excel functions this assignment is intended
to cover.

If we provided you with too esoteric a solution, your teacher would know
that you got it from somewhere else. (Hmm, I wouldn't be surprised if your
teacher monitors these newsgroups. I would. ;->)

Or are you simply completely clueless about how write even a simple formula
using the IF function to satisfy the assignment?


----- original message -----

 

[Dave Peterson]

Look in excel's help for the =exact() function.

I have a question about Excel:

The answers for the 20 questions are listed below. Use this information to
write functions that will grade each answer, giving 1 point for a correct
answer and 0 otherwise. Assume that all answers are in lowercase letters;
therefore, the function that tests the answer to the first question should
check for a "c" rather than a "C"

If there's any help to that, please write back