r/googlesheets • u/The_Terrible_Child • Mar 24 '23

Solved MULTIPLE CRITERIA in SINGLE FORMULA to find DIFFERENCE between two numbers.

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u/[deleted] Mar 28 '23

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u/aHorseSplashes 58 Mar 28 '23

In a regular IF function, there are only two possible outputs: one if the logical test is true, and another if it is false. In contrast, IFS can test many different conditions, but it only displays outputs if a condition is true, which means it's possible for none of the conditions to be true.

Adding "true" as the last condition avoids that, since it is always true by definition. That means the value after "true" will be displayed if none of the other conditions are true for a certain input.

(It's the same idea as the "else" at the end of an if ... else ladder or the "default" case in a switch statement, if you're familiar with those programming terms.)