The relational operators compare dates, strings and numbers, comparing the left-hand operand with the right-hand operand.
The result is a Logical value, TRUE
or FALSE
as appropriate.
Note that both operands must be of the same type (e.g. both numbers) to gain a useful result.
<
Less than
<=
Less than or equal to
<>
Not equal to
=
Equal to
>
Greater than
>=
Greater than or equal to
Example:
B8>10
will compare the contents of cell B8 with the number 10.
If B8 contains a number greater than 10, the result will be the Logical value TRUE
.
If B8 contains a number which is 10 or less, the result will be FALSE
.
If B8 contains text or a date, the result will also be FALSE
.
Relational operators are useful for establishing the condition for the IF
function, and in database functions.
Example:
The following function displays the first text message in the cell if the condition is true, and the second if it is not true:
IF(A1<B1, "A1 less than B1", "A1 not less than B1")
When comparing text strings there are three wildcards you can use in the right-hand side of the comparison.
^?
Matches any single character not including space
^#
Matches any number of characters including spaces
^^
Matches the character ^
Example:
"Venice"="^#nice"
will return the Logical value TRUE
.