The Purpose of ">1" in this Function

[isadoko]

Am looking for, but cannot find a explanation for the role of the number one in this function:

=IF(A2>1,A2+C2,"")

Column A contains dates, 01/01/19
Column C contains numbers, 13,16,20,21

The end result if a calculated date. But, I was not told what purpose the ">1" in the function serves and author gone.

Would appreciate your help as searching has so far failed to return an answer. Thanks!

 

[Aryatect]

Hi,

I think it is checking if Column A contains a Date or not, if it contains date then it adds A and C.

 

[isadoko]

I think you are right. I tried different values and whether 0 or 1 or 2, etc, gave returned a date. As well A2<>"", returned a date. Finally, =IF(NOT(ISBLANK(A2)),A2+C2," "). Many thanks the help.

 

[Rick Rothstein]

Excel (and VBA code also) stores dates as floating point numbers... the whole number represents the number of days offset from "date zero" while the fractional part represents the time as a fraction of a 24-hour day. If your cell is less than zero, then one of three possibilities exist... the cell is empty, the cell contains 0 or the cell contains a time value only (no date). Your formula is making sure there is an actual date (with or without an associated time value) in the cell.