how to distinguish between text cells?

[phaidon]

I have four cells with the following texts
A1= abcdef
A2= abcdef
A3= xyzdef
A4= xyzdef

now I want to have an If formula in B1 that can disginguish if the cell A1
is starting with abc or xyz or something else ( and the same at B2 for A2 and
so on)
So basically I need a formula that can just read the beginning characters of
text in a cell.

I think the formula in B1 should be like if( the beginnig 3 charecters of
A1=abc,True,False).

I dont want to divide the text in the cells. Is that possible?

Thanks

 

[Bondi]

Hi

=IF(LEFT(A1,3)="ABC","True","False")

Regards,
Bondi

 

[phaidon]

Great Thnx