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 data of employees it shows date and time in same column I want to highlight the late comer and early leaver how can I set the formula say coming late after 8:30 am and leaving before 2:00 pm
Hi Akhtar,
Supposing the arrival time is in column A and departure time in column B, you can create conditional formatting rules with the following formulas:
=TIME(HOUR($A2),MINUTE($A2),SECOND($A2))>TIMEVALUE("8:30 AM")
=TIME(HOUR($B2),MINUTE($B2),SECOND($B2))<TIMEVALUE("2:00 PM")
Suppose i want to put a comment like 80% and above is Distinction, 70-79% is Credit, 50-69% is Pass.what formula do i use so that excel will do it without typing in Dinstinction, or pass or credit or fail myself?
Hi Farie,
You can use a nested IF formula like in the following example:
https://www.ablebits.com/office-addins-blog/nested-if-excel-multiple-conditions/
I have a problem in using excel in this scenario, what if in column A i have values like 1.0, 1.1, 1.2,1.3, 1.4, 1.5 up to 3.0 and in column B i'd like to see the result that if values in column A are from 1.0-1.2 it should be equal to 18.00 in column B, if values in column A are from 1.3-1.5 it should be equal to 17.40 in column B, and so on... what do i have to do if i have infinitely many possible input value within a given range but should only have 1 specific outcome value? tnx.
Hi there. I need to find out how to do the formula for the following.
Column a is type of vehicle
column b is computer time
column c is my time.
COLUMN E IS DIFFERENCE (EITHER POS OR NEG)
now some times the computer is faster so what i want to say is that if column b is greater than column c then it must put in the difference. IE MY TIME FASTER
BUT IF COLUMN B IS LESS (QUICKER) THAN COLUMN C THEN THE FORMULA MUST SUBTRACT COLUMN B FROM COLUMN C AND ENTER DIFFERENCE AS A NEGATIVE IN COLUMN E
I HOPE I EXPLAINED THAT RIGHT. PLEASE HELP.
MANY THANKS
very good
i am working in bescom i like your diffrent formulas
Hi,
Thanks so much dear Svetlana, it worked, I used the page your referred me to.
This is used for a translation quality assessment rubric.
Here it is:
=IF(D32>=90, "Outstanding", IF(D32>=80, "Acceptable", IF(D32>=70, "Revisable", "Weak ")))
Thanks so much! :)
Hi Bijîk,
You need a nested IF formula for D33 like in the following example:
https://www.ablebits.com/office-addins-blog/nested-if-excel-multiple-conditions/
I can help you with the proper formula if you clarify your criteria in the following way:
Outstanding - D32 is between X and Y, inclusive (or not inclusive)
Acceptable - D32 is between X and Y, inclusive (or not inclusive)
Etc.
Hi again,
Sorry, the reply is scrambled. Could you please fix this:
=IF(I29 < D32 < I28, D33="Outstanding"), IF(I31 < D32 <I30, D33="Acceptable"), IF(I33 < D32 < I32, D33="Revisable"), IF(D32 < I34, D33="Weak")
Hi Svetlana,
Thanks for your wonderful support.
If possible help me with these:
If D32>89.99 and D3279.99 and D3269.99 and D3270 then D33 = Weak
Thank you so much in advance. :)
Bijîk
Hi Svetlana,
I am currently trying to write an equation for calculating how many people to do a task.
If I need to count units in a warehouse, I need a certain amount of people on hand if there are certain quantities in a warehouse.
Say I had these units to be counted. Following figures in units:
A1 = 5000
B2 = 29999
B3 = 99999
B4 = 1000000
B5 = 2000000
Between A2:B2 I need 1 person, between B2:B3 I need 2 people, between B3:B4, I need 4, people, between B4:B5 I need 10 people.
How would I write this as an equation? There's a lot of different mixed views in the comments of the article page and I am certainly confused hence me asking to be your student for a day.
I need a formulae for H Column equals the same value in E5 and K30 and E7 and K40...The values are 10221 and 12227 respectively
Does anyone know what the "but no less than" formula is?
If column A1,B1,C1,D1 are values and I want E1 is greater among them, then what will be the formula in exel
Hi Sunil,
=MAX(A1:D1)
Hi I have a simple problem. I'm not an excel expert at all.
I have to calculate the hours worked by staff. 9 Hours per day is required, so 45 hours per week means no overtime or deduction for fewer hours worked. When the weekly hours worked is less and equal to 45 i need the answer for overtime worked to be "zero", not true or false. what formula do i use? how do i do that ? im clueless...
Hi Francois,
You can use an IF formula similar to this:
=IF(A2<=45, 0, "overtime")
Where A2 is the Hour column. And you can enter any other text, number or calculation instead of "overtime".
Hi
Hope you can help. I need a couple formulas:
1. Need formula to look a LOS column lists 0 years, 0 months to 41 years, 8 months that states if the LOS is greater than 6 months, but less than 1 years, Y for yes.
2. Need to look at text in column on one worksheet, and if matches on other worksheet which list job codes with job banding, list the job band created for the other worksheet.
Any help would be appreciated!
Hi Michelle,
Please have a look at the series of our articles about the LOOKUP functions:
https://www.ablebits.com/office-addins-blog/tag/excel-vlookup/
If you still have any questions or difficulties, please send a small sample workbook with your source data and the expected result to support@ablebits.com. We’ll try to help.
Hi Svetlana
Great article, very helpful thank you. I was wondering if you could help me with two queries that I can not quite solve myself, despite your helpful article?
1) I am looking for a calculation for the following if A1 is greater than 5823 I need it to calculate what 1% of any value is between 5824 and 42000 (in other words if the figure in A1 was 50,000 I would need the calculation to be (42,000-5824)*0.01) (if it was 25000 I would need it to calculate (25000-5824)*0.01) (If it was 5000 I would need it to recognise it was less than 5824 and insert a 0)
2) I would like the spreadsheet to count anyone between age 18 and 67, the spreadsheet would have a list of dates of birth. Also I'm not sure if it can do this but every time I go into the spreadsheet can it recognise the same information based on that days date?
An answer to at least one of the above would really help me?
Many thanks
Michael
Hi Michael,
Sorry, I am not sure if I fully understand your first task. The below formula works with the following logic:
- if the value in A1 is greater than 5823, it calculates (A1-5824)*0.01
- if the value in A1 is equal to or less than 5823, it returns 0
=IF(A1>5823, (A1-5824)*0.01, 0)
Please correct me if my understanding is wrong.
As for the second task, you can use one of the age calculation formulas described in How to calculate age from date of birth in Excel and then use the following COUNTIFS formula:
=COUNTIFS(B1:B15, ">18", B1:B15, "<67")
Where column B is the age column.
Hi Svetlana
Thank you for your help. Step two is perfect I will apply this.
as for question 1 there is one part missing. The calculation should only be based on 1% of anything greater than 5823 and anything less than 42001. So any amount above 42000 need to be ignored in the calculation?
Thanks
Michael
I think I got it. Then we can add the following OR statement in the logical test:
=IF(OR(A1>5823, A1<42001), (A1-5824)*0.01, 0)
Not quite I'm afraid if I A1 = 50000 the calculation should be (42000-5824)*0.01 = 361.76
The formula you provided still counts the additional 8000 above the 42000 so it calculates (50000-5824)*0.01=441.76
I am trying to get the calculation to only take into account anything between and including 5824 and 42000
Do you understand and can you help?
Sorry it is quite difficult to explain thank you for your patience
Hi Michael,
Okay, let me check if I understand the conditions correctly:
If A1>=5824 and A1<=42000, then (A1-5824)*0.01
If A1>42000, then (42000-5824)*0.01
If A1<5824, then 0
The following formula works with the above logic:
=IF(AND(A1>=5824, A1<=42000), (A1-5824)*0.01, IF(A1>42000, (42000-5824)*0.01, 0))
BTW, instead of (42000-5824)*0.01 you can put the resulting number 361.76 directly in the formula:
=IF(AND(A1>=5824, A1<=42000), (A1-5824)*0.01, IF(A1>42000, 361.76, 0))
If I misinterpreted any of the conditions again, please let me know, or you can adjust the calculations directly in the formula.
Svetlana
That is perfect, thank you very much your help is greatly appreciated.
Kind regards
Michael
I need a formula to calculate a value based on 4 value ranges. So if A1 is greater than 100, but less than 299, then B1 multiplied by set value, but if A1 if greater than 300 but less than 499, then B1 is multiplied by a different set value, if A1 is greater than 500 but less than 1999, the B1 is multiplied by a different set value and if A1 is greater than 2000 then B1 is multiplied by yet another value. Can you help??? many thanks
Hi Jean,
You can use a nested IF formula like this:
=IF(A1>2000, B1*1, IF(A1>=500, B1*2, IF(A1>=300, B1*3, IF(A1>=100, A1*4,""))))
HUGE THANKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You've just made my day! thanks
If I wanted to show if A1 is not ABC, the Cell B1 will shows either some text or change the cell (B1) color to RED
Hi Adrian,
To show some text, enter the following formula in B1:
=IF(A1<>"ABC", "some text", "")
To change the color, select B1 and create a conditional formatting rule for it with this formula: =$A1<>"ABC"
PLEASE HELP!
I have two columns with raw data and they are columns D = Days, E=total pages.
To report on the data columns I have the following:
Column L = Total Pages
Column M = Total line count
Column N = Less than 3 days
this is what I need:
Column L
Total Pages
1
2
3
4
5-10
11-15
16-20
Column M
Total Invcs
needs to equal columnColumn E if its 1 page
needs to equal columnColumn E if its 2 pages
needs to equal columnColumn E if its 3 pages
needs to equal columnColumn E if its 4 pages
needs to equal columnColumn E if its 5, 6, 7, 8, 9,10 pages
needs to equal columnColumn E if its 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 pages
needs to equal columnColumn E if its 16, 17, 18, 19, 20 pages
Column N
Less than 3 Days
same as column M BUT only if column D is 3 or less
same as column M BUT only if column D is 3 or less
same as column M BUT only if column D is 3 or less
same as column M BUT only if column D is 3 or less
same as column M BUT only if column D is 3 or less
same as column M BUT only if column D is 3 or less
same as column M BUT only if column D is 3 or less
Columns M and N are where I need the formula that I can't figure out :((
*order weight column ex. 6.2 (A5)*
The formulas i entered was
=IF(A5>=5<=12,C5)
Hi Dan,
Excel cannot understand 2 logical operators like you use. You need an AND statement in this case.
For example, the following formula will return a value from C5 if A5 is equal to or greater than 5 and less than or equal to 12, an empty string otherwise:
=IF(AND(A5>=5, A5<=12), C5, "")
If you are looking for something different, please clarify.
You are an absolute star Svetlana, really appreciate you taking the time to solve my issue, our dogs will never go hungry! :)