First: fill in the result column

Open your Match Data tab. Column H has the header result but is empty. Your first task is to fill it using a formula that calculates the match result automatically.

Why: the formulas you write later need to count wins, draws, and losses. Calculating the result once as a simple word is much cleaner than comparing score columns inside every formula.

Introducing IF

IF checks a condition and returns a different value depending on whether it is true or false.

=IF(condition, value_if_true, value_if_false)

Worked example — student grades

Column H: Result — your first formula

Go to the Match Data tab in your spreadsheet (not My Analysis).

You are going to write your very first spreadsheet formula. Take it one step at a time.

What do you want to display? For each match row, you want the cell in column H to show one of three words:

• home_win — if the home team scored more goals
• away_win — if the away team scored more goals
• draw — if both teams scored the same

The logic:

If home_score > away_score → "home_win"
If home_score < away_score → "away_win"
If they are equal         → "draw"

Introducing nested IF: when you have three possible outcomes instead of two, you put a second IF inside the first. It works like this:

=IF(first condition, "value if true", IF(second condition, "value if true", "value if both false"))

For cell H2 (the first empty result cell — row 1 is the header), the formula is:

=IF(D2>E2, "home_win", IF(D2<E2, "away_win", "draw"))

D2 is home_score. E2 is away_score. If D2 is greater than E2 → home_win. If D2 is less → away_win. If neither → draw.

How to drag the formula down: You have 300+ rows to fill. You don't type the formula 300 times — you drag it.

• Click on H2
• Look at the bottom-right corner of the cell — you'll see a small square called the fill handle
• Hover over it until the cursor becomes a thin + cross
• Click and drag that cross all the way down to the last row of your data (drag from H2 down)
• Release — Google Sheets fills every row automatically, adjusting the row numbers (H3, H4, H5…) for you

Mac shortcut: click H2, then hold Shift and click the last cell in column H, release, then press Cmd+Enter — this fills the selection with the formula instantly.

This is one of the most useful techniques in spreadsheets: write one formula, apply it to thousands of rows instantly.