For years, nested IF statements were my default solution whenever an Excel formula needed more logic. The problem is that they become difficult to read, debug, and maintain surprisingly quickly.

I know how to write Excel formulas, but I just don't need to. Memorizing argument order for XLOOKUP or counting parentheses in a nested IF has never been the interesting part of working with data.

Have you ever followed a YouTube tutorial, carefully copied an Excel formula, and hit “Enter,” only to be met with an error or baffling results? It’s a ...