Debugging a fitness calculator with multiple nested IF statements - google-sheets

Question

I'm using the Harris Benedict Equation to calculate people's TDEE. I'm using Google Sheets to create a sort of form for this but Google Sheets is sort of difficult to work with. I'm getting a formula parse error. Formatting is pretty bad sorry about that.
I know I'm making a small comma or parenthesis error somewhere but I'm not sure where.
The code is supposed to ask if people prefer metric/imperial, male/female, height, weight, activity level, and age.
Here's how Google Sheets does if statements. It pretty much is:
IF(A2 = "foo","A2 is foo")
Syntax is:
IF(logical_expression, value_if_true, value_if_false)
=IF (D9=”Imperial”,
IF(D10=”Male”,
IF(D16=”Sedentary (no exercise)”,
66 + ( 6.2 x D14 ) + ( 12.7 x (D13x12+G13) ) – ( 6.76 x D12 )x1.2,
IF(D16=”Lightly Active (1-3 days of exercise/week)”,
66 + ( 6.2 x D14 ) + ( 12.7 x (D13x12+G13) ) – ( 6.76 x D12 )x1.375,
IF(D16=”Moderately Active (3-5 days of exercise/week)”,
66 + ( 6.2 x D14 ) + ( 12.7 x (D13x12+G13) ) – ( 6.76 x D12 )x1.55,
IF(D16=”Very Active(6-7 days of exercise/week)”,
66 + ( 6.2 x D14 ) + ( 12.7 x (D13x12+G13) ) – ( 6.76 x D12 )x1.725,
IF(D16=”Extremely Active(exercise twice a day)”,
66 + ( 6.2 x D14 ) + ( 12.7 x (D13x12+G13) ) – ( 6.76 x D12 )x1.9,
“ “)))))
IF(D16=”Sedentary (no exercise)”,
655.1 + ( 4.35 x D14 ) + ( 4.7 x (D13x12+G13) ) - ( 4.7 x D12 ) x1.2,
IF(Lightly Active (1-3 days of exercise/week)”,
655.1 + ( 4.35 x D14 ) + ( 4.7 x (D13x12+G13) ) - ( 4.7 x D12 ) x1.375,
IF(Moderately Active (3-5 days of exercise/week)”,
655.1 + ( 4.35 x D14 ) + ( 4.7 x (D13x12+G13) ) - ( 4.7 x D12 ) x1.55,
IF(D16=”Very Active(6-7 days of exercise/week)”,
655.1 + ( 4.35 x D14 ) + ( 4.7 x (D13x12+G13) ) - ( 4.7 x D12 ) x1.725,
IF(D16=”Extremely Active(exercise twice a day)”,
655.1 + ( 4.35 x D14 ) + ( 4.7 x (D13x12+G13) ) - ( 4.7 x D12 ) x1.9,
“ “))))))
IF(D10=”Male”,
IF(D16=”Sedentary (no exercise)”,
66.5 + ( 13.75 x D14 ) + ( 5.003 x D13 ) – ( 6.755 x D12 )x1.2,
IF(Lightly Active (1-3 days of exercise/week)”,
66.5 + ( 13.75 x D14 ) + ( 5.003 x D13 ) – ( 6.755 x D12 )x1.375,
IF(Moderately Active (3-5 days of exercise/week)”,
66.5 + ( 13.75 x D14 ) + ( 5.003 x D13 ) – ( 6.755 x D12 )x1.55,
IF(D16=”Very Active(6-7 days of exercise/week)”
66.5 + ( 13.75 x D14 ) + ( 5.003 x D13 ) – ( 6.755 x D12 )x1.725,
IF(D16=”Extremely Active(exercise twice a day)”,
66.5 + ( 13.75 x D14 ) + ( 5.003 x D13 ) – ( 6.755 x D12 )x1.9,
“ “)))))
IF(D16=”Sedentary (no exercise)”,
655.1 + ( 9.563 x D14 ) + ( 1.850 x D13 ) – ( 4.676 x D12 ) x1.2,
IF(Lightly Active (1-3 days of exercise/week)”,
655.1 + ( 9.563 x D14 ) + ( 1.850 x D13 ) – ( 4.676 x D12 ) x1.375,
IF(Moderately Active (3-5 days of exercise/week)”,
655.1 + ( 9.563 x D14 ) + ( 1.850 x D13 ) – ( 4.676 x D12 ) x1.55,
IF(D16=”Very Active(6-7 days of exercise/week)”,
655.1 + ( 9.563 x D14 ) + ( 1.850 x D13 ) – ( 4.676 x D12 ) x1.725,
IF(D16=”Extremely Active(exercise twice a day)”,
655.1 + ( 9.563 x D14 ) + ( 1.850 x D13 ) – ( 4.676 x D12 ) x1.9,
“ “))))))
)

Answer 1

You have things like IF(Lightly Active (1-3 days of exercise/week)” which obviously aren't going to work. This sort of nesting of IFs shouldn't be there in the first place, it's a minefield of typos. Use hlookup or vlookup instead. Example of vlookup replacing five nested IFs:
=if(D9=”Imperial”,
if(D10=”Male”,
vlookup(D16, {
”Sedentary (no exercise)”,
66 + ( 6.2 x D14 ) + ( 12.7 x (D13x12+G13) ) – ( 6.76 x D12 )x1.2;
”Lightly Active (1-3 days of exercise/week)”,
66 + ( 6.2 x D14 ) + ( 12.7 x (D13x12+G13) ) – ( 6.76 x D12 )x1.375;
”Moderately Active (3-5 days of exercise/week)”,
66 + ( 6.2 x D14 ) + ( 12.7 x (D13x12+G13) ) – ( 6.76 x D12 )x1.55;
”Very Active(6-7 days of exercise/week)”,
66 + ( 6.2 x D14 ) + ( 12.7 x (D13x12+G13) ) – ( 6.76 x D12 )x1.725;
”Extremely Active(exercise twice a day)”,
66 + ( 6.2 x D14 ) + ( 12.7 x (D13x12+G13) ) – ( 6.76 x D12 )x1.9,
}, 2, false)
....
Notice that you can put 15 instead of 5 options here, and no new parentheses will be needed.
Depending on how your data is structured, you may be able to put this reference tables elsewhere in the sheet, say in Table!A1:B5, Table!A6:B11, etc:
=if(D9=”Imperial”,
if(D10=”Male”,
vlookup(D16, Table!A1:B5, 2, false),
vlookup(D16, Table!A6:B11, 2, false)
),
if(D10=”Male”,
vlookup(D16, Table!A12:B16, 2, false),
vlookup(D16, Table!A17:B21, 2, false)
)
)
One can wrap each vlookup in iferror so that when the input data is not of expected kind, you get blank output instead of #N/A! error (though the latter is more informative).