One Row at a Time, or All Rows at Once
This article gives you the one distinction that sorts out Excel's whole IF family, and ends the specific confusion where you try to make IF produce a total and cannot work out why it will not. IF works on one row and writes an answer into that row. Give it 82,956 rows and you get 82,956 answers, one each. It is a labelling tool: it builds a column. COUNTIF, SUMIF and AVERAGEIF look across every…
The article explains the fundamental difference between Excel's IF function and COUNTIF, SUMIF, and AVERAGEIF functions. IF works on a row-by-row basis, labeling each row with a yes or no answer, while COUNTIF, SUMIF, and AVERAGEIF look across all rows and return a single number.
When deciding between these functions, ask yourself whether you want to write something into every row or produce one number. If you need to label each row, use IF. If you're measuring a single value across all rows, use COUNTIF, SUMIF, or AVERAGEIF.
The article provides an example of labelling games as "Loved" or "Hidden" using IF, and measuring the number of "Loved" games using COUNTIF. It highlights that IF writes into the row it lives in, while the family of functions reads every row and returns a single number. The S versions of these functions, such as COUNTIFS, SUMIFS, and AVERAGEIFS, accept multiple conditions and return one number.
The article concludes by emphasizing the importance of using the appropriate function based on whether you're labeling or measuring, and the value of using the S versions by default when multiple conditions are needed.
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