Plural number formats in Excel
In Excel, suppose you want to produce a table like this:
| 2 oxen | |
| 1 ox | |
| 3 oxen | |
| Total | 6 oxen |
|---|
Obviously you want to use the SUM formula to add up the total number of beasties. That means you can’t literally type “2 oxen” into the cell – you’ll have to just type “2″ but make up a number format to present it as you wish.
That’s easy for singular quantities: the number format would be 0 "sheep".
But for plurals you have to go a bit further. It turns out you can put multiple formats in the box, separate them with semicolons, and add conditions. So the desired format is this: [=1]0 "ox";0 "oxen".
This adds all sorts of potential. What about [=0]"None";[<4]"A few";"Lots"? Or [=2]"Company";[>2]"A crowd"?