IF function

[Rachel Koch]

I'm trying to get excel 2000 to return one formula if something is true and
another if it's false. This is what I have so far:
=IF(C4>C3,=(C4-C3),=(C3-C4))

but it's telling me there's an error in my formula. Is this something Excel
just an't do? C3 and C4 are times and I need to know the difference between
them. I know Excel can't display time as a negative number, and I've tried
multiplying the answer by 24 and displaying it as a number not time, but it's
not right either. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Arvi Laanemets]

Hi

=C4-C3+(C4<C3)

An explanation. Time in Excel is a decimal. A full day (24 hours) equals to
1 - the same as logical value TRUE. Logical value FALSE equals to 0.
I.e. when C4>C3, then the eqation is C4-C3+0;
when C4<C3, then the equation is 1+C4-C3

 

[joeu2004]

I'm trying to get excel 2000 to return one formula if
something is true and another if it's false. This is
what I have so far: =IF(C4>C3,=(C4-C3),=(C3-C4))
but it's telling me there's an error in my formula.

Because of the "=" in the middle. What you want is:

=if(c4>c3, c4-c3, c3-c4)

Alternatively:

=abs(c4-c3)

But I am not sure that really meets your needs ....

C3 and C4 are times and I need to know the difference
between them.

If c4 is the later time and c4 < c3 arises because you have
gone past midnight, simply doing c3 - c4 does not give you
the correct amount of elapsed time. What you might really
want is:

=if(c4>c3, c4-c3, 1 + c4-c3)

Or simply:

=c4-c3 + (c4<c3)

On the other hand, that would not detect the situation
when you have gone past midnight __and__ past c3
the following day.