total newbie has Calc question

users
#1

hello, and thank you for taking the time to read my question, i'll try to be
concise but i'm so new to using the program that i'm not sure of exactly how
to ask or what language to use.

I'm putting together an annual rent report for the shared house i live in,
due to varying room sizes there are two rent brackets (60/week for small
rooms, 70/week for large) we also have one resident paying a third amount as
part of an arrangement we have where he is doing some work for us.

what i would like to be able to do is represent each rent bracket with a
letter (eg "A" for small rooms, "B" for large and "S" for special
arangments) and by inputting that letter in to a cell i would like another
cell to be populated with the total amount they owe in rent per year (or to
be left blank in the case of the special arrangement)

would this be possible and if so, how would i go about it?

thank you again for your time and any help will be greatly appreciated

#2

If Column 'C' is to have the 'A' or 'B' or 'S' and starting row 5
(randomly picked, figuring there will labels above and to the left).

If C5 is waiting for the letter entry and the formula to appear in
cell D5 the most basic formula would be
=IF(C5="A",50,IF(C5="B",60,""))
This will result in a blank unless C5 has an 'A' or 'B'.

You can expand a bit to
=IF(C5="A",50,IF(C5="B",60,IF(C5="S","")))
This will result in a FALSE if C5 has anything other than 'A' or 'B'
or 'S', including a blank cell (good for catching errors).

If you only want a FALSE to appear when something other than 'A' or
'B' or 'S' is entered, not including a blank cell:
=IF(C5="","",IF(C5="A",50,IF(C5="B",60,IF(C5="S",""))))

Once you have the formula you want, it can be copied to other cells.

#3

This is fairly straightforward.

o Create a table of the values that you want to use. The first column of the table would have the code letters, A, B, and S, and the second column the corresponding values - with the cell against "S" being blank. This table can be out of the way of the main part of the spreadsheet, perhaps on a separate sheet or excluded from printing by the use of a Print Range, so that it will not appear on your printed report.

o In the cells where you require the rent value to appear, you need to use the VLOOKUP() function, referring to the table you have created. Let's imagine that you are inputting the code letters into column A and you require the values to appear in column B, and that the table you have created is in rows 1 to 3 of columns K and L. Then enter
=VLOOKUP(A1;K$1:L$3;2;0)
into B1 and fill that down the column. This function searches the first column of the table at K1:L3 for the value in A1 (or A2 and so on) and returns the corresponding value in the second column. If there is no match, it returns the error "Value Not Available", which appears as "#N/A".

I trust this helps.

Brian Barker