Question

What will happen if, in an IF function, you accidentally omit the quotes from the value_if_true and value_if_false arguments as follows? =IF(C4, eligible, ineligible)

Answer 1

Omitting quotes from the value_if_true and value_if_false arguments results in an error in the IF function of Excel. This is because Excel treats these values as logical values instead of text, and it does not recognize 'eligible' and 'ineligible' as predefined logical values.

Step-by-step explanation:

In Excel's IF function, eligible and ineligible are considered as logical values and not text values if they aren't enclosed in quotation marks. This will cause Excel to display an error message because it doesn't recognize 'eligible' and 'ineligible' as predefined logical values, which are TRUE and FALSE in Excel. In contrast, if 'eligible' and 'ineligible' were surrounded by quotation marks, Excel would interpret them as string text values and the IF formula would operate successfully.

For example, the correct format should be =IF(C4,"eligible","ineligible").

Learn more about IF function in Excel