Using Nested IF Statements to Show a Status/Step

[Amanda_Donovan]

I know I’m overlooking something here but I can’t figure out what that is. I’m trying to create a Publishing Status field using nested IF statements.

So far, I’ve only tested the first few statements, but I can’t get anything other than step 1 to show.

I still need to add all of this:

IF(Done =NOT(Blank()), “step 15”,
IF(Published =NOT(BLANK()), “step 14”,
IF(Uploaded =NOT(BLANK()), “step 13”,
IF(Accepted =NOT(BLANK()), “step 12”,
IF({Client Approves Draft} = NOT(BLANK()), “step 11”,
IF({Draft Delivery URL} = NOT(BLANK()), “step 10”,
IF({Senior Draft Review} =NOT(BLANK()), “step 9”,
IF({Internal Draft URL} =NOT(BLANK()), “step 8”,
IF({Client Approves Outline} =NOT(BLANK()), “step 7”,
IF({Outline Delivery URL} =NOT(BLANK()), “step 6”,
IF({Senior Outline Review} =NOT(BLANK()), “step 5”,
IF({Internal Outline URL} =NOT(BLANK()), “step 4,
IF(Author =NOT(BLANK()), “step 3”,
IF(Article =NOT(BLANK()), “step 2”,
IF(Article =BLANK(), “step 1”))))))))))))))

But right now I can’t determine where I’ve messed up or what rules I should be adding to make this work.

Does anyone have suggestions?

Thanks!

[Kris]

Hi Amanda,

Two things I notice in your formula.

1. Nested IF states evaluate from the outside-in.
2. There’s no need for ‘NOT(BLANK())’, just check if the field has data with IF({Field}, true, false)

So with those two things in mind, I rewrote it quick. Untested but hopefully will work for you :slightly_smiling_face:

IF({Article}, "Step 1", 
IF({Author}, "Step 3", 
IF({Internal Outline URL}, "Step 4", 
IF({Senior Outline Review}, "Step 5", 
IF({Outline Delivery URL}, "Step 6", 
IF({Client Approves Outline}, "Step 7", 
IF({Internal Draft URL}, "Step 8", 
IF({Senior Draft Review}, "Step 9", 
IF({Draft Delivery URL}, "Step 10", 
IF({Client Approves Draft}, "Step 11", 
IF({Accepted}, "Step 12", 
IF({Uploaded}, "Step 13", 
IF({Published}, "Step 14", 
IF({Done}, "Step 15", "Step 2")))))
)))))))))

[Amanda_Donovan]

Hey Kris!

Thanks for this response - it was very helpful!

For some reason, this formula is only showing steps 1, 2, and 3. But I think combining what you’ve showed me here with AND or NOT statements might work, so I’m going to give that a try.

[Kris]

Glad it was helpful :slightly_smiling_face:

The fact that it’s showing Step 2 means it’s going through all of those IF statements and then ‘false’ on the last step. My hunch would be that your issue is within the IF conditions. For example, if your ‘Internal Outline’ field is filled, does that mean the ‘Author’ field will always be filled too? If so, it would never get to that step 4 because it will always stop when it returns true on the Author.

Maybe that’s another helpful piece of info – Nested IF statements will continue UNTIL it hits a valid output, then stops.

I’m sure you’ll figure it out! If you run into any challenges along the way though, feel free to add to the thread =D

Cheers,
Kris

[Amanda_Donovan · Accepted solution]

Solved it!

I ended up using this formula:

IF(NOT(Article),‘step 1’,
IF(AND(Article,NOT(Author)),‘step 2’,
IF(AND(Article,Author,NOT({Internal Outline URL})),‘step 3’
)))

Thanks again for your help! I really appreciate it!