🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1991Feb25.022254.23689@usenet.ins.cwru.edu> bhatlas@pyrite.som.cwru.edu (Sunil Bhatla) writes:
>
>How do I get WingZ to return a user-specified value (say 8.75) if it
>finds a text string (say B+) in a given cell? The IF(condition,x,y)
>function specified in the manual only handles numbers, not text
>strings.
>
>My problem is that I have a bunch of letter grades that I need to
>compute averages for. Any ideas will be appreciated (yes, I know there
>are programs out there that will do just this, but I would rather
>stick with WingZ - if Lotus 123 can do it, why can't WingZ!).
>


I agree with you that the Wingz Manual is not very well organized,
especially with regards to Functions.  The reference leaves a lot
to be desired !!

Anyway, as a solution to your problem, I would set up a small table
in an unused portion of your spreadsheet and use the VLOOKUP function
to determine the values for your grades. 

For example....

       AA   |   AB   |
----------------------
 1  |  A+   |   10   |
 2  |  A    |    9   |
 3  |  A-   |    8   |
 4  |   B+   |   7   |
 5  |  B    |    6   |

etc...

Then put the formula  VLOOKUP(A5,AA1..AB5,1) in the cell which you want
the grade value to appear where:

A5 = Cell where Grade text is
AA1..AB5 is range for the table which has been created
1  is the offset into the table.

So when VLOOKUP Scans your table, it will look in column AA for a value
matching the grade text, and will return the value located in the same
row offset by one column (in this case AB)

Now as I do not have a manual in front of me, nor would it probably do
much good if I did, please bear with me if the next example does not
perform correctly without a little research.

IF VLOOKUP fails, i.e. does not find a value in your table.  It will
return an error code of 26 and display a message.  If you can deal with
this, as you would be using the application and would not be confused by
the error, it would be in your best interest to do so.  Otherwise, I believe
the following will work ;-)

  IF(ERRNR(VLOOKUP(A5,AA1..AB5,1)) = 26,"ERROR",VLOOKUP(A5,AA1..AB5,1))


Even without a great reference manual, this product definitely has its
advantages.  (I find the online help to be useful,  Mostly for function
definitions as above)

Good Luck with Wingz,


Tom Smith