Not ANOTHER 'nested IF' problem!!!

**im_spartacus** · 12-22-2009, 12:54 PM

Hello, everyone.

I'm a long-time Excel user, but every now and then I find I need to do something just beyond my (admittedly basic) grasp of the functions I commonly use.

I've put together a spreadsheet to keep track of my personal expenses. It includes a 'Totals' sheet which summarises the twelve monthly sheets, into which I want to incorporate a row displaying monthly averages.

Say, for example, column C of the totals sheet contains car-related expenditure; cell C2 would pick up the monthly total from the January sheet, C3 that from February, C4 from March, and so forth. Cell C14 sums the values for the year, while C15 should calculate the average expenditure per month.

Herein lies the problem (given the limitation of seven arguments in a nested IF statement). I'm trying to apply a formula to C15 which works out what the average is on the basis of how many of cells C2 through C13 contain a non-null value, then uses that as the divisor into the running total held in C14 to give the average, e.g. until C6 contains any data, the average should be based upon four months' worth of figures. (I'm aware of the limitations of this method, in that it will only be truly accurate on the last day of any given month and "read low" most of the rest of the time. Any suggestions on how to fix that?)

All the examples I've seen in my research for a solution to the 'seven arguments' problem seem to be based upon using VLOOKUP to test the value in a single field against a range of values, rather than finding a way of saying "if C4 is null then divide by 2, else if C5 is null then divide by 3, else if..." etc.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

**NBVC** · 12-22-2009, 12:58 PM

Welcome to the forum,

Your post does not comply with Rule 1 of our Forum RULES. Your post title should accurately and concisely describe your problem, not your anticipated solution. Use terms appropriate to a Google search. Poor thread titles, like Please Help, Urgent, Need Help, Formula Problem, Code Problem, and Need Advice will be addressed according to the OP's experience in the forum: If you have less than 10 posts, expect (and respond to) a request to change your thread title. If you have 10 or more posts, expect your post to be locked, so you can start a new thread with an appropriate title.
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**im_spartacus** · 12-23-2009, 12:04 PM

Oh dear. I don't seem to have got off to a great start. My intention was to keep it light, given my expectation that the kind of problem I was posting about is fairly common and would be easily solved by an experienced Excel user.

I also felt I had given a reasonably informative description of the problem, insofar as the limitations of the nested IF statement were at the root of it. (I, too, abhor such vague post titles as "Need advice" or "Help!"). Would it have been acceptable if I'd titled the thread simply "Nested IF problem"?

Anyway, a friend who uses Excel happened to call by last night, and he made me aware of the COUNTA function, which seems to have solved the problem.

**NBVC** · 12-23-2009, 12:18 PM

"Average calculation based on a range containing null cells"

or similar would be more appropriate, I think

**shg** · 12-23-2009, 12:21 PM

... given my expectation that the kind of problem I was posting about is fairly common and would be easily solved by an experienced Excel user.

And indeed it would. The problem is, it would benefit only you, because no one else with a similar problem would find the result by searching the forum. So those 'experienced Excel users' would have the opportunity to answer the same question with a thousand different and clever titles, again, and again, and again ...

It's not that we don't appreciate the touch; join the Water Cooler forum and be as clever as you wish

Now you know, and we're happy to have you here.