Excel Toolkit / Function guides
IF in Excel: explanation and examples
Ask a question and return one answer for yes and another for no. Start with one direct calculation.
These examples use the Moon Energy teaching case. All businesses and data are fictional. They are learning examples, not financial or tax advice.
Microsoft’s definition
to return one value if a condition is true and another value if it's false.
Read the IF function reference on Microsoft Support
Three ways to understand IF
Transactional finance
Moon Energy’s finance team is reviewing opening-period supplier bill amounts and a comparison budget.
Flag whether the first observation exceeds the threshold.
| Row | A | B | C | D | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Site code | Site type | Bill net GBP | Budget | Selection / threshold |
| 2 | S01 | Hospital | £32,439.68 | £29,195.71 | |
| 3 | S02 | Office | £7,420.00 | £6,678.00 | 10000 |
| 4 | S03 | Office | £6,128.42 | £5,515.58 | |
| 5 | S04 | Retail | £3,216.42 | £2,894.78 | |
| 6 | S05 | Retail | £3,771.49 | £3,394.34 |
Formula: =IF(C2>E3,"Review","Within limit")
Result for this sample: Review
Business operations
Moon Energy’s operations team is reviewing site electricity readings and a comparison consumption budget.
Flag whether the first observation exceeds the threshold.
| Row | A | B | C | D | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Site code | Site type | Electricity kWh | Budget | Selection / threshold |
| 2 | S01 | Hospital | 143695 | 129325.5 | |
| 3 | S02 | Office | 32000 | 28800 | 10000 |
| 4 | S03 | Office | 26234 | 23610.6 | |
| 5 | S04 | Retail | 13234 | 11910.6 | |
| 6 | S05 | Retail | 15712 | 14140.8 |
Formula: =IF(C2>E3,"Review","Within limit")
Result for this sample: Review
Abstract
Moon Energy’s orbital stations hold photon-cell reserves. Their controller compares current reserves with planned reserves.
Flag whether the first observation exceeds the threshold.
| Row | A | B | C | D | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Station code | Station class | Photon cells | Budget | Selection / threshold |
| 2 | S01 | Hospital | 14500 | 13050 | |
| 3 | S02 | Office | 3200 | 2880 | 10000 |
| 4 | S03 | Office | 2600 | 2340 | |
| 5 | S04 | Retail | 1300 | 1170 | |
| 6 | S05 | Retail | 1600 | 1440 |
Formula: =IF(C2>E3,"Review","Within limit")
Result for this sample: Review
Experiment in Formula Lab
Open IF in the interactive Formula Lab →
The practice engine supports a focused subset of Excel behavior. Lookups are exact-match only; it does not support all Excel functions, dates, arrays or workbook imports. Read the limits shown in Formula Lab before interpreting a result.