Relational operators

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")

Comparing strings using wildcards

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.