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Table of Logical Operators

Below is a table showing each logical operator, its meaning, and an example of an IF statement using the operator. You can use other functions as part of the test or values, including another IF statement. Yes, it can get quite complicated!

Logical Operator	Meaning	Example
=	Equal to	=IF(E8=C8,"Equal","Not equal") When the two cells are equal, the word "Equal" is shown. When the two cells are not equal, the phrase "Not equal" shows.
<	Less than	=IF(F4<E4,E4-F4, F4-E4) If F4 is less than E4, subtract F4 from E4. Otherwise do the subtraction the other way. This test makes sure you have a positive number for the difference of the two numbers.
>	Greater than	=IF(C6>100,C6,100) If C6 is greater than 100, show C6. Otherwise show 100.
<=	Less than or equal to	=IF(B5<=10,B5,"Maximum") If B5 is less than or equal to 10, show B5. Otherwise show the word "Maximum".
>=	Greater than or equal to	=IF(MAX(B4:E8)>=SUM(B4:E8)/2,MAX(B4:E8), SUM(B4:E8)/2) If the largest value in the range is larger than or equal to half of the sum of the range, then show the largest value. Otherwise show half the sum of the range. (These statements can get really messy looking!)
<>	Not equal to	=IF(B8<>D6,IF(B8<10,10,B8),D6) If B8 is not equal to D6, check to see if B8 is less than 10. Show 10 if it is and B8 if it isn't. Otherwise show D6, which was equal to B8. This is an example of nesting, which uses a function as one of the arguments for another function.

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Nesting

You can nest up to 64 functions inside other functions. That lets you nest plenty of IF statements to create complex tests.

Example: To show a letter grade in the cell beside the cell AverageScore, you could use 4 nested IF statements in a single formula:

=IF(AverageScore>=89.5,"A",IF(AverageScore>=79.5,"B",IF(AverageScore>=69.5,"C",IF(AverageScore>=59.5,"D","F"))))

Instead of writing complicated expressions inside an IF statement, you can do each calculation in a separate cell and use only the cell references in the IF statement. Of course, if you do that, looking at the IF formula will not tell you much about what is really going on. Naming the cells would be useful in this kind of situation.

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Conditional Formatting

You can create conditional formatting, which uses a logical test to apply one format for a cell when the test is true and a different format when it is false. For example, you could format positive amounts with a green cell fill and negative amounts with a red fill. Or when a certain condition is met, a cell could show text, like "Over budget!"

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