Getting ready

The data used here is one of the example files that come with Minitab. Open the pulse.mtw worksheet from the sample Minitab data folder by going to the File menu and clicking on Open Worksheet. Select the icon Look in Minitab Sample Data folder.

How to do it…

The following instructions will convert the values of 1 and 2 in the Smokes column to Smokes and Non-Smoker

How it works…

An if statement is entered in the following format: IF(Logical statement, TRUE, FALSE); the value entered after the first comma being the true for the statement. Numeric values for the response are entered purely as numbers without any double quotes. Text is always entered inside double quotes, for example, "True". Column names are used with single quotes, for example, 'Pulse1'.

There's more…

The IF statements can be generalized to multiple IF conditions very simply. A general IF statement would have the following syntax:

IF(Statement1, True1, Statement2, True2… StatementN, TrueN, False)

When identifying missing values in the worksheet, the code must be used as the first statement. These values can be identified with the code Miss() or '*'.

For example, the following will identify a missing result in the Smokes column as Unknown, 1 as Smoker, and all others as Non-Smoker:

IF('Smokes' = '*', "Unknown", 'Smokes' = 1, "Smoker", "Non-Smoker")

See also