A case statement is a type of statement that goes through conditions and returns a value when the first condition is met.
The easiest way to implement a case statement in Google Sheets is by using the SWITCH() function, which uses the following basic syntax:
=SWITCH(A2, "G", "Guard", "F", "Forward", "C", "Center", "None")
This particular function looks at cell A2 and returns the following value:
- “Guard” if cell A2 contains “G”
- “Forward” if cell A2 contains “F”
- “Center” if cell A2 contains “C”
- “None” if cell A2 does not contain any of the previous values
The following example shows how to use this function in practice in Google Sheets.
Example: Case Statement in Google Sheets
Suppose we have the following list of basketball positions:
We’ll use the following SWITCH() function to return a specific position name in column B based on the value in column A:
=SWITCH(A2, "G", "Guard", "F", "Forward", "C", "Center", "None")
We’ll type this formula into cell B2 and then copy and paste it down to every remaining cell in column B:
This formula returns the following values in column B:
- “Guard” if column A contains “G”
- “Forward” if column A contains “F”
- “Center” if column A contains “C”
- “None” if column A does not contain any of the previous values
Notice that the last value in column B returns a value of “None” since we didn’t specify a specific value to return for “Z” in the formula.
We could also use the following formula to simply return the original value from column A if it does not contain any of the specified values in the SWITCH formula:
=SWITCH(A2, "G", "Guard", "F", "Forward", "C", "Center", A2)
We’ll type this formula into cell B2 and then copy and paste it down to every remaining cell in column B:
Notice that the last value in column B simply returns a value of Z since the last value in column A didn’t contain any of the specified values in the SWITCH formula.
Note: You can find the complete documentation for the SWITCH function in Google Sheets here.
Additional Resources
The following tutorials explain how to perform other common tasks in Google Sheets:
Google Sheets: A Simple Formula for “If Contains”
How to Use ISERROR in Google Sheets