Just because, they said it couldn't be done?

26 IF statements in one equation?

Up to seven IF functions can be nested as value_if_true and value_if_false arguments.

Now I'm not saying this is correct or should even be attempted - but from time to time people write and ask if there is a way to get around this. What I read the first time said seven IF statements. What I read somewhere else said 7 layers of IF statements. So I couldn't sleep one night and thought I would see if I could write one big IF statement that would return the number of the letter of the alphabet that I typed. You know - A would be 1, B would be 2, C would be 3, and Z would be 26.

Now you might think I'm crazy (and you'd be pretty close to right) but it can be done. Sure there are better ways to do this and Iwouldn't argue that there aren't. But if anyone ever asks if there is a way around the limit of 7 IF statements, well, I can show them this. And then they will probably wonder why they asked.

Of course - getting the parenthesis right on this took a try or two, so I've included a text box that you can click- select all - copy - and then got to excel and paste.

Select this text and paste it cell C2 in Excel. Then type a letter into B2 and it will tell you what number the letter is in the alphabet. (capitalization doesn't matter but it has to be a-z)

You can download the working spreadsheet by Clicking Here (zip).

File is virus free and macro free.