by Many tasks you perform in Excel involve comparing data in different cells. For this, Microsoft Excel provides six logical operators, which are also called comparison operators. This tutorial aims to help you understand the insight of Excel logical operators and write the most efficient formulas for your data analysis.
Excel logical operators - overview
A logical operator is used in Excel to compare two values. Logical operators are sometimes called Boolean operators because the result of the comparison in any given case can only be either TRUE or FALSE.
Six logical operators are available in Excel. The following table explains what each of them does and illustrates the theory with formula examples.
| Condition | Operator | Formula Example | Description |
| Equal to | = | =A1=B1 | The formula returns TRUE if a value in cell A1 is equal to the values in cell B1; FALSE otherwise. |
| Not equal to | <> | =A1<>B1 | The formula returns TRUE if a value in cell A1 is not equal to the value in cell B1; FALSE otherwise. |
| Greater than | > | =A1>B1 | The formula returns TRUE if a value in cell A1 is greater than a value in cell B1; otherwise it returns FALSE. |
| Less than | < | =A1<B1 | The formula returns TRUE if a value in cell A1 is less than in cell B1; FALSE otherwise. |
| Greater than or equal to | >= | =A1>=B1 | The formula returns TRUE if a value in cell A1 is greater than or equal to the values in cell B1; FALSE otherwise. |
| Less than or equal to | <= | =A1<=B1 | The formula returns TRUE if a value in cell A1 is less than or equal to the values in cell B1; FALSE otherwise. |
The screenshot below demonstrates the results returned by Equal to, Not equal to, Greater than and Less than logical operators:
It may seem that the above table covers it all and there's nothing more to talk about. But in fact, each logical operator has its own specificities and knowing them can help you harness the real power of Excel formulas.
Using "Equal to" logical operator in Excel
The Equal to logical operator (=) can be used to compare all data types - numbers, dates, text values, Booleans, as well as the results returned by other Excel formulas. For example:
| =A1=B1 | Returns TRUE if the values in cells A1 and B1 are the same, FALSE otherwise. |
| =A1="oranges" | Returns TRUE if cells A1 contain the word "oranges", FALSE otherwise. |
| =A1=TRUE | Returns TRUE if cells A1 contain the Boolean value TRUE, otherwise it returns FALSE. |
| =A1=(B1/2) | Returns TRUE if a number in cell A1 is equal to the quotient of the division of B1 by 2, FALSE otherwise. |
Example 1. Using the "Equal to" operator with dates
You might be surprised to know that the Equal to logical operator cannot compare dates as easily as numbers. For example, if the cells A1 and A2 contain the date "12/1/2014", the formula =A1=A2 will return TRUE exactly as it should.
However, if you try either =A1=12/1/2014 or =A1="12/1/2014" you will get FALSE as the result. A bit unexpected, eh?
The point is that Excel stores dates as numbers beginning with 1-Jan-1900, which is stored as 1. The date 12/1/2014 is stored as 41974. In the above formulas, Microsoft Excel interprets "12/1/2014" as a usual text string, and since "12/1/2014" is not equal to 41974, it returns FALSE.
To get the correct result, you must always wrap a date in the DATEVALUE function, like this =A1=DATEVALUE("12/1/2014")
Note. The DATEVALUE function needs to be used with other logical operator as well, as demonstrated in the examples that follow.
The same approach should be applied when you use Excel's equal to operator in the logical test of the IF function. You can find more info as well as a few formula examples in this tutorial: Using Excel IF function with dates.
Example 2. Using the "Equal to" operator with text values
Using Excel's Equal to operator with text values does not require any extra twists. The only thing you should keep in mind is that the Equal to logical operator in Excel is case-insensitive, meaning that case differences are ignored when comparing text values.
For example, if cell A1 contains the word "oranges" and cell B1 contains "Oranges", the formula =A1=B1 will return TRUE.
If you want to compare text values taking in to account their case differences, you should use the EXACT function instead of the Equal to operator. The syntax of the EXACT function is as simple as:
Where text 1 and text2 are the values you want to compare. If the values are exactly the same, including case, Excel returns TRUE; otherwise, it returns FALSE. You can also use the EXACT function in IF formulas when you need a case-sensitive comparison of text values, as shown in the below screenshot:
Note. If you want to compare the length of two text values, you can use the LEN function instead, for example =LEN(A2)=LEN(B2) or =LEN(A2)>=LEN(B2).
Example 3. Comparing Boolean values and numbers
There is a widespread opinion that in Microsoft Excel the Boolean value of TRUE always equates to 1 and FALSE to 0. However, this is only partially true, and the key word here is "always" or more precisely "not always" : )
When writing an 'equal to' logical expression that compares a Boolean value and a number, you need to specifically point out for Excel that a non-numeric Boolean value should be treated as a number. You can do this by adding the double minus sign in front of a Boolean value or a cell reference, e. g. =A2=--TRUE or =A2=--B2.
The 1st minus sign, which is technically called the unary operator, coerces TRUE/FALSE to -1/0, respectively, and the second unary negates the values turning them into +1 and 0. This will probably be easier to understand looking at the following screenshot:
Note. You should add the double unary operator before a Boolean when using other logical operators such as not equal to, greater than or less than to correctly compare a numeric and Boolean values.
When using logical operators in complex formulas, you might also need to add the double unary before each logical expression that returns TRUE or FALSE as the result. Here's an example of such a formula: SUMPRODUCT and SUMIFS in Excel.
Using "Not equal to" logical operator in Excel
You use Excel's Not equal to operator (<>) when you want to make sure that a cell's value is not equal to a specified value. The use of the Not equal to operator is very similar to the use of Equal to that we discussed a moment ago.
The results returned by the Not equal to operator are analogous to the results produced by the Excel NOT function that reverses the value of its argument. The following table provides a few formula examples.
| Not equal to operator | NOT function | Description |
| =A1<>B1 | =NOT(A1=B1) | Returns TRUE if the values in cells A1 and B1 are not the same, FALSE otherwise. |
| =A1<>"oranges" | =NOT(A1="oranges") | Returns TRUE if cell A1 contains any value other than "oranges", FALSE if it contains "oranges" or "ORANGES" or "Oranges", etc. |
| =A1<>TRUE | =NOT(A1=TRUE) | Returns TRUE if cell A1 contains any value other than TRUE, FALSE otherwise. |
| =A1<>(B1/2) | =NOT(A1=B1/2) | Returns TRUE if a number in cell A1 is not equal to the quotient of the division of B1 by 2, FALSE otherwise. |
| =A1<>DATEVALUE("12/1/2014") | =NOT(A1=DATEVALUE("12/1/2014")) | Returns TRUE if A1 contains any value other than the date of 1-Dec-2014, regardless of the date format, FALSE otherwise. |
Greater than, less than, greater than or equal to, less than or equal to
You use these logical operators in Excel to check how one number compares to another. Microsoft Excel provides 4 comparison operates whose names are self-explanatory:
- Greater than (>)
- Greater than or equal to (>=)
- Less than (<)
- Less than or equal to (<=)
Most often, Excel comparison operators are used with numbers, date and time values. For example:
| =A1>20 | Returns TRUE if a number in cell A1 is greater than 20, FALSE otherwise. |
| =A1>=(B1/2) | Returns TRUE if a number in cell A1 is greater than or equal to the quotient of the division of B1 by 2, FALSE otherwise. |
| =A1<DATEVALUE("12/1/2014") | Returns TRUE if a date in cell A1 is less than 1-Dec-2014, FALSE otherwise. |
| =A1<=SUM(B1:D1) | Returns TRUE if a number in cell A1 is less than or equal to the sum of values in cells B1:D1, FALSE otherwise. |
Using Excel comparison operators with text values
In theory, you can also use the greater than, greater than or equal to operators as well as their less than counterparts with text values. For example, if cell A1 contains "apples" and B1 contains "bananas", guess what the formula =A1>B1 will return? Congratulations to those who've staked on FALSE : )
When comparing text values, Microsoft Excel ignores their case and compares the values symbol by symbol, "a" being considered the lowest text value and "z" - the highest text value.
So, when comparing the values of "apples" (A1) and "bananas" (B1), Excel starts with their first letters "a" and "b", respectively, and since "b" is greater than "a", the formula =A1>B1 returns FALSE.
If the first letters are the same, then the 2nd letters are compared, if they happen to be identical too, then Excel gets to the 3rd, 4th letters and so on. For example, if A1 contained "apples" and B1 contained "agave", the formula =A1>B1 would return TRUE because "p" is greater than "g".
At first sight, the use of comparison operators with text values seems to have very little practical sense, but you never know what you might need in the future, so probably this knowledge will prove helpful to someone.
Common uses of logical operators in Excel
In real work, Excel logical operators are rarely used on their own. Agree, the Boolean values TRUE and FALSE they return, though very true (excuse the pun), are not very meaningful. To get more sensible results, you can use logical operators as part of Excel functions or conditional formatting rules, as demonstrated in the below examples.
1. Using logical operators in arguments of Excel functions
When it comes to logical operators, Excel is very permissive and allows using them in parameters of many functions. One of the most common uses is found in Excel IF function where the comparison operators can help to construct a logical test, and the IF formula will return an appropriate result depending on whether the test evaluates to TRUE or FALSE. For example:
=IF(A1>=B1, "OK", "Not OK")
This simple IF formula returns OK if a value in cell A1 is greater than or equal to a value in cell B1, "Not OK" otherwise.
And here's another example:
=IF(A1<>B1, SUM(A1:C1), "")
The formula compares the values in cells A1 and B1, and if A1 is not equal to B1, the sum of values in cells A1:C1 is returned, an empty string otherwise.
Excel logical operators are also widely used in special IF functions such as SUMIF, COUNTIF, AVERAGEIF and their plural counterparts that return a result based on a certain condition or multiple conditions.
You can find a wealth of formula examples in the following tutorials:
2. Using Excel logical operators in mathematical calculations
Of course, Excel functions are very powerful, but you don't always have to use them to achieve the desired result. For example, the results returned by the following two formulas are identical:
IF function: =IF(B2>C2, B2*10, B2*5)
Formula with logical operators: =(B2>C2)*(B2*10)+(B2<=C2)*(B2*5)
I guess the IF formula is easier to interpret, right? It tells Excel to multiply a value in cell B2 by 10 if B2 is greater than C2, otherwise the value in B1 is multiplied by 5.
Now, let's analyze what the 2nd formula with the greater than and less than or equal to logical operators does. It helps to know that in mathematical calculations Excel does equate the Boolean value TRUE to 1, and FALSE to 0. Keeping this in mind, let's see what each of the logical expressions actually returns.
If a value in cell B2 is greater than a value in C2, then the expression B2>C2 is TRUE, and consequently equal to 1. On the other hand, B2<=C2 is FALSE and equal to 0. So, given that B2>C2, our formula undergoes the following transformation:
Since any number multiplied by zero gives zero, we can cast away the second part of the formula after the plus sign. And because any number multiplied by 1 is that number, our complex formula turns into a simple =B2*10 that returns the product of multiplying B2 by 10, which is exactly what the above IF formula does : )
Obviously, if a value in cell B2 is less than in C2, then the expression B2>C2 evaluates to FALSE (0) and B2<=C2 to TRUE (1), meaning that the reverse of the described above will occur.
3. Logical operators in Excel conditional formatting
Another common use of logical operators is found in Excel Conditional Formatting that lets you quickly highlight the most important information in a spreadsheet.
For example, the following simple rules highlight selected cells or entire rows in your worksheet depending on a value in column A:
Less than (orange): =A1<5
Greater than (green): =A1>20
For the detailed-step-by-step instructions and rule examples, please see the following articles:
As you see, the use of logical operators in Excel is intuitive and easy. In the next article, we are going to learn the nuts and bolts of Excel logical functions that allow performing more than one comparison in a formula. Please stay tuned and thank you for reading!
1256 comments
I have two tables the one table I want it to display what the other table says but if it says a certain work I want the 2nd table to skip that row and display the next one. Than the row under that one I want it to continue where the previous row left off. I cant figure out how to have the row continue where the previous one left off, It'll just repeat what the previous one said.
Condition is
value= 1000 to 3000 = a
600 to 800 = b
other false
data
1000
3000
2000
1800
500
400
600
what's syntax will come any body can help me?
my skype- chandan.kumar459
Hi thanks for the article. Very clear and informative, as always.
I recently experienced a curious problem related to the operators. Assume that I have the following cells:
In A1 I have the formula =TODAY()
In B1 I have an alphanumerical string, say QWRSTY-11. The last two numbers represent the calendar week
In C1 I have the following formula
=IF(ISOWEEKNUM(A1)<RIGHT(B1,2),"X","0")
Since today is June 14, 2016 and the week number is 24, the formula should return "0". Instead, it returns "X".
To double check my formulas, in D1 I entered the following:
=ISOWEEKNUM(A1)-RIGHT(B1,2)
This formula returns "13", which is correct!!
I will be grateful if you could help me understand what's going on here. Thanks
I want a formula for excel for below example:
Column A (Medicine Tablets required) has Value 17
Column B ( One strip has maximum tablets) has value 10
Formula required in column C is compare B with A. and decide to order number of strips of medicine. Column C should show strips to be ordered as 2.
Hello, thanks for the great article.
I have a simple question. I have the word "test" in A1 and the formula "=A1>0" in B1. B1 shows "TRUE". How can "test" be greater than zero? I would expect some kind of error message instead of "TRUE".
Hi John,
In Excel any text including an empty string ("") has a higher value than any number. To return an error message for text values and blanks, you can use a formula similar to this:
=IF(AND(ISNUMBER(A1), A1>0), TRUE, IF(ISTEXT(A1), "error: text", IF(ISBLANK(A1), "error: blank")))
Hi i am doing a vacation, sick leave, personal days that employees are taking. I have created the table and coded vacation as (V), sick leave as (S) and personal as (P). I also have them by month so what i want to do know is to do as when i select V on an employee reflects on the vacation colunm and in sick leave the samething to happen in there repective colunms. Can some one please help me?
Thank you in advance,
Vasni
i want to highlight false if condition is
A B C
650000 650000 650000
if a=0 and b>0 = c>0
Hi, I need a formula for one cell:
IF A2 has a value between 101-122, then text "below average"
IF A2 has a value between 123-144, then text "average"
IF A2 has a value between 145-200, then text "above average"
IF A2 has a value between 201-250, then text "not acceptable"
Thank you.
Hi, I need help on a formula :
Cell A1 is a drop-down list with "Apple", "Orange", "Carrot".
Cell B1 is a vlookup on item in Cell A1 with value for "Apple" = 200, "Orange" = 300 and "Carrot" = 400.
Cell C1 is the quantity to order.
Cell D1 is a vlookup on the minimum amount that we need to pay to the vendor for each type of goods with "Apple" = 2000, "Orange" = 2500 and "Carrot" = 3500. (If order amount is less then the minimum amount, we would have to pay the minumum amount).
Cell E1 - Would like to have a formula to calculate the amount that we need to be paid after selecting the item in A1 and input the quantity in C1.
Thank you.
Edit: I should have mentioned also my text is being generated through a data validation list.
Hello I'm after some help on a solving a problem driving me crazy:
Basically I would like to increase days in a date (e.g. 1/6/16) based on text in other cells then reset/override the original 'if' statement if need be.
For example
Cell E5 = 1/6/16, I now select text in cell F5 "add 20" the date is now 21/6/16
Cell E5 = 21/6/16, I now select text in cell G5 "reset back to original date" and basically want the date to reset back to the 1/6/16
Is this possible ?
Hello I'm after some help on a solving a problem driving me crazy:
Basically I would like to increase days in a date (e.g. 1/6/16) based on text in other cells then reset/override the original 'if' statement if need be.
For example
Cell E5 = 1/6/16, I now select text in cell F5 "add 20" the date is now 21/6/16
Cell E5 = 21/6/16, I now select text in cell G5 "reset back to original date" and basically want the date to reset back to the 1/6/16
Is this possible ?
1/6/16
Hi I need solution for this in a single formula :
when value is less than or equal to 50 it gives result zero
when value is between 50 to 70 it multiplies with 4 & when value is more than 70 or more it multiples with 3
50 = 0
50-70 = 58*4
70 plus = 110 * 3
DEAR CONGRATS,
YOUR SUPPORT IS AMAZING,
PLEASE HELP ME IN SAMPLE FORMULA OF
TRG VS ACH IF 100% ACH THEN YES WITH COLOR TAP IF NOT THEN WITH OTHER COLOR TAP.
THANKS
Hello looking for help on a spread sheet that I am making for the baseball team, basically you have two teams score one in A1 and the other in A2, say the score in A1 is 5 and A2 is 8. then I have a win and a lost column say B4 is win and B5 is lost. I am trying to make it once you put the score in it will mark the win or lost box for me.
thanks
The formula above got a little funky, this is the one I am using (Only the first one is different)
=IF(AND(B4>=1,B4=51,B4=76,B4=101,B4=126,B4=151,B4=176,B4=201,B4=226,B4=251,B4=276,B4=301,B4=326,B4=351,B4=375,B4=401,B4=426,B4=451,B4=476,B4=501,B4=534,B4=567,B4=600,B4=634,B4=667,B4=700,B4=733,B4=766,B4=799,B4=832,B4=865,B4=898,B4=931,B4=964,B4=997,B4=1051,B4=1101,B4=1151,B4=1201,B4=1251,B4=1301,B4=1351,B4=1401,B4=1451,B4=1501,B4=1551,B4=1601,B4=1651,B4=1701,B4=1751,B4=1801,B4=1851,B4=1901,B4=1951,B4=2001,B4=2101,B4=2201,B4=2301,B4=2401,B4=2501,B4=2601,B4=2701,B4=2801,B4=2901,B4=3001,B4=3101,B4=3201,B4=3301,B4=3401,B4=3501,B4=3601,B4=3701,B4=3801,B4=3901,B4=4001,B4=4101,B4=4201,B4=4301,B4=4401,B4=4501,B4=4601,B4=4701,B4=4801,B4=4901,B4=5001,B4=5101,B4=5201,B4=5301,B4=5401,B4=5501,B4=5601,B4=5701,B4=5801,B4=5901,B4=6001,B4=6101,B4=6201,B4=6301,B4=6401,B4=6501,B4=6601,B4=6701,B4=6801,B4=6901,B4=7001,B4=7101,B4=7201,B4=7301,B4=7401,B4=7501,B4=7601,B4=7701,B4=7801,B4=7901,B4=8001,B4=8101,B4=8201,B4=8301,B4=8401,B4=8501,B4=8601,B4=8701,B4=8801,B4=8901,B4=9001,B4=9101,B4=9201,B4=9301,B4=9401,B4=9501,B4=9601,B4=9701,B4=9801,B4=9901,B4<=10000),"135","")
Hi!
Your website has been a tremendous amount of help. Thank you for taking the time and effort to put this together.
I'm presently working on a formula that has got me somewhat stumped.
The issue I'm having is figuring out how to have my final formula infinite. I'd like the formula to increase the "" within every hundred.
I could manually do an additional formula but I would be doing it forever!
Example:
If there was an additional formula after 10k it would be this but I would have to keep doing that for every 100.
IF(AND(B4>=10001,B4=1,B4=51,B4=76,B4=101,B4=126,B4=151,B4=176,B4=201,B4=226,B4=251,B4=276,B4=301,B4=326,B4=351,B4=375,B4=401,B4=426,B4=451,B4=476,B4=501,B4=534,B4=567,B4=600,B4=634,B4=667,B4=700,B4=733,B4=766,B4=799,B4=832,B4=865,B4=898,B4=931,B4=964,B4=997,B4=1051,B4=1101,B4=1151,B4=1201,B4=1251,B4=1301,B4=1351,B4=1401,B4=1451,B4=1501,B4=1551,B4=1601,B4=1651,B4=1701,B4=1751,B4=1801,B4=1851,B4=1901,B4=1951,B4=2001,B4=2101,B4=2201,B4=2301,B4=2401,B4=2501,B4=2601,B4=2701,B4=2801,B4=2901,B4=3001,B4=3101,B4=3201,B4=3301,B4=3401,B4=3501,B4=3601,B4=3701,B4=3801,B4=3901,B4=4001,B4=4101,B4=4201,B4=4301,B4=4401,B4=4501,B4=4601,B4=4701,B4=4801,B4=4901,B4=5001,B4=5101,B4=5201,B4=5301,B4=5401,B4=5501,B4=5601,B4=5701,B4=5801,B4=5901,B4=6001,B4=6101,B4=6201,B4=6301,B4=6401,B4=6501,B4=6601,B4=6701,B4=6801,B4=6901,B4=7001,B4=7101,B4=7201,B4=7301,B4=7401,B4=7501,B4=7601,B4=7701,B4=7801,B4=7901,B4=8001,B4=8101,B4=8201,B4=8301,B4=8401,B4=8501,B4=8601,B4=8701,B4=8801,B4=8901,B4=9001,B4=9101,B4=9201,B4=9301,B4=9401,B4=9501,B4=9601,B4=9701,B4=9801,B4=9901,B4<=10000),"135","")
Alternatively - If having it be infinite won't work, is there a way to make it so that a message "EXAMPLE" is returned instead of invalid if something over 10,000 is entered.
Thank you so much in advance for your help.
Hopefully you can help me out, I need to subtract 15 minutes when a value (A1) duration is below 6 hours and 30 minutes needs to be subtracted when the value is above 6 hours.
You could help me out by getting the value 0:15 or 0:30 in a cell so I can subtract the values.
thank you in advance
Hello Jacy,
Try this formula:
=IF(A1<TIME(6,0,0), A1-TIME(0,15,0), A1-TIME(0,30,0))
For more information, please check out this article: Adding and subtracting time in Excel.
I want to set a function in my sheet. My requirement is, If I type AIR/SEA in cell a1 then it should be convert on cell d1 for AIR=10 & SEA=30.
Regards,
Rozer
i want to sum cell a5*b5 but the answer should be less than 16
its important
Check if E1(15) divided by A1(3) is greater than B1(6)???=if(E1............
Like this!!!!