Excel logical operators: equal to, not equal to, greater than, less than

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:
Using Equal to, Not equal to, Greater than and Less than in Excel

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")
Using Excel's equal to operator with dates

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:

EXACT(text1, text2)

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:
Using the EXACT function for case-sensitive comparison of text values

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:
Comparing Boolean values and numbers

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".
Using Excel comparison operators with text values

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)
Using Excel logical operators in mathematical calculations

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:
Formula with logical operators

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
Using logical operator in Excel conditional formatting

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!

Table of contents

1256 comments

  1. Hi,
    Please Help.
    I've got an array of value's in Colom B, the values are determined by a simple =C1/12 formula.
    But now I want it to do the following.

    If value is LESS than 1, it should change it to 1.
    If value is equal to or greater than 1 is should stay unchanged.

    Is this possible?

  2. Hello Svetlana Cheusheva!

    Your efforts to help students/employees concerning excel formulas are really appreciable.

    I need to know formula for the below statement:
    If we have a column having total marks of students like 60,75,25,115,150,250 etc and I want to show the grades int he next column in front of these values their grades like if less than 50 it is Fail, greater than 50 it is Fair, greater than 100 it is Good, greater than 200 it is Excellent.
    Kindly guide me to write formula.

    Thanks

    • Hi Sheraz,

      This can be done with a classic nested IFs formula like this:
      =IF(A2>200, "Excellent", IF(A2>100, "Good", IF(A2>50, "Fair", "Fail")))

      • thanx alot! :)

  3. I'm trying to create multiplication math worksheets for young student. I can easily generate random numbers between specified values but I would like to always have the greater value as the top number. Young students get confused if their multiplication problem looks like this:
    2
    x15

    How do I randomly generate a number between specified values that will be greater than a randomly generated number in another cell?

    Thanks

  4. I need to know about the formula of below statement.

    count if cell value equal to (-,blank,0) also
    i need contact # like @@@-@@@@@@@ in a cell if value or digits missing then cell not allowed.

    Thanks

  5. I need to be able to input a number into cell A2 and have that compare to cell A1 value - if the value of the 'new' number is greater than the compared value, i need to add the difference to the existing value - example: i enter 150 in A2, which is greater than 25 in A1, but the difference is 125 - i want to add 125 to the value in A1 and keep the entry in A2, I have tried the IF in various forms with no luck, would appreciate any help.

  6. I need to have a formula for this,

    if the difference between a3 and b3 is less than 800,the results is true if the absolute value of the (a3 and b3) is 200. And if the the difference between a3 and b3 is greater than 800, the results is true if 30 percent multiply by the difference of (a3 and b3) otherwise false

  7. I need to get a result for the following;

    Example1:
    Value X = 1.2 (This value can change)

    Value Y = 5

    Result;
    X1.5<2=0

    Example2:
    Value X = 1.6 (This value can change)

    Value Y = 5

    Result;
    X1.5<2=Y which is 5

  8. MY TASK:

    My calculator description:

    Condition: Minimum fee 70 EUR.

    1 employee = 5 EUR

    1 operation = 1 EUR

    1 cash register service 40 EUR (not included in the minimum fee)

    Example:

    The number of your company's employees

    3 work * 5 EUR

    Issued invoices and invoices

    10 pcs * 1 EUR

    Invoices and invoices received

    5 pcs * 1 EUR

    Advance payment checks

    15 pcs * 1 EUR

    Cash registers

    1gab * 40 EUR

    Monthly service fee *

    15 + 10 + 5 + 15 = 45, but not less than 70 EUR, plus cash register 40 EUR. Total amount of 110 EUR

    Help to write formula for this please

  9. How do use a in excel to identify a certain text in another cell?

    Example:
    Column A has "42A"
    Column B has "31B/42A/88M"

    I want to say if column A is in column B than Column C display "Qualified"

  10. i have a very confusing question with.
    Question:
    if Housing is < 15,000=10,000 else 15,000

    NAME BASIC SALARY HOUSING ALL. FEEDING ALL.
    MUSA 300,000 60000 if Housing is < 15000=10000 else 15000
    JOHN 150,000 27825
    IBRAHIM 150,000 26250
    JAMES 200,000 33740
    STEPHEN 200,000 35300
    please check and give me a nice answer need this for an exam.

  11. Here's the formula I'm trying to build:

    An employee who works the "night" shift (any number of hours between 8pm and 8am) is paid $10/hour. The employee working the day shift (8am-8pm) earns $20/hour. I have 4 columns: "time in", "time out", "hours worked" and "rate of pay/hour". How should I write the formula that populates the "rate of pay" column based on the shift and number of hours worked?

    Thank you!

  12. Dear all

    This is the Name sentance SHERBHADURKHAN , this three name SHER BHADUR KHAN how we can spacing in excel sheet through formula , please help me.

    Thanks

  13. Figured it out thanks anyway

  14. I meant >=16 then.........

  15. I am looking to be able to have a statement that will end result in a highlighted box. I want to be able to say- If (A1*B1*C1).= 16 then.................

  16. Hi Thanu, Not sure your reply is for my question... If so, then have no idea what your response means. Remember, I have basic knowledge of working with formulas for excel. I'll try again...

    Cell 'H2' should only carry the total hours from cells 'A2:G2', which in the example above has 42 hours. I just wanted a way for cell 'H2' to only reflect 40 hours of the 42, and in cell 'I2' reflect only the 2 remaining hours. This is the only way I can explain what I am after. Thanks

  17. Hi,
    I hav 1 doubt, in the cell value is greater than 100, then "a". If the value is less than 100, then "b". If the value is lesser than or equal to zero, then "c". How can i create formula for this...

  18. Hi, I have basic knowledge here, so please help... I have 7 horiz. cells 'sun thru sat' (A1:G1) that will each have the total hours worked that day (A2:G2), then I will have the combined total of those 7 cells in the very next cell 'H2'(=SUM(A2:G2). What I want to do is get the number hours in cell 'H2' that are greater then 40 into the next cell 'I2'. Can you please help with that formula... Thanks
    A B C D E F G H I
    1 sun mon tue wed thu fri sat hrs OT
    2 9 8 0 9 0 8 8 42 2

  19. Hi,

    Column D E
    1 C1
    2 C2
    3 C3
    4 C2
    5 C3
    6 C4
    7 C5
    8 C6

    I want to put the value in column E if C1=10, C2= 20, C=30, C4= 40, C5= 60, C6= 70. What will be the formula??. I tried by using IF(OR fomula but failed. Would you help me?

  20. GOT IT

    =IF(A67=B67,C61,IF(AND(MATCH(A67,A63:A69,0),MATCH(B67,A63:A69,0)),C61,""))

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