Welcome to the ultimate guide on comparison operators in Google Sheets! If you’ve ever wondered how to compare values effectively and get TRUE or FALSE results, you’re in the right place. Comparison operators are essential in various tasks such as IF statements, filters, conditional formatting, and more. In this article, we will explore the six types of comparison operators, how they work, and how you can combine them to create complex conditions in your spreadsheets.
What are Comparison Operators?
Comparison operators work by evaluating a pair of values and determining if they are equal, different, or if one is greater and/or equal to the other. Whether you’re dealing with numeric values, date and time values, or even text values, these operators can assist you. The result of a comparison operator is a boolean value, either TRUE or FALSE, which can be used to trigger certain transformations on your data.
Types of Comparison Operators
Google Sheets provides six comparison operators that you can utilize:
- Equal to (=): This operator checks if the left side is equal to the right side.
- Not equal to (<>): This operator checks if the left side is NOT equal to the right side.
- Less than (<): This operator checks if the left side is less than the right side.
- Greater than (>): This operator checks if the left side is greater than the right side.
- Less than or equal to (<=): This operator checks if the left side is less than or equal to the right side.
- Greater than or equal to (>=): This operator checks if the left side is greater than or equal to the right side.
Now, let’s take a closer look at each of these operators and see how they work.
Equal to (=)
The equal to operator compares the values on both sides and checks if they are the same. You can use it in the following syntax: =(value1 = value2). Value1 and value2 can be numbers, text, strings, date/time values, boolean values, or references to cells containing any of these values. For example, if we have values in cells A2 and B2, the operation =(A2=B2) will return TRUE if both values are equal.
Not equal to (<>)
The not equal to operator compares the values on both sides and checks if they are different. Its syntax is =(value1 <> value2). As with the equal to operator, value1 and value2 can be numbers, text, strings, date/time values, boolean values, or references to cells containing any of these values. For example, the operation =(A2<>B2) will return TRUE if the values in cells A2 and B2 are different.
Less than (<)
The less than operator compares the value on the left side with the value on the right side, checking if the left side is less than the right side. Its syntax is =(value1 < value2). For instance, if we have values in cells A4 and B4, the operation =(A4<B4) will return TRUE if the value in A4 is less than the value in B4.
Greater than (>)
The greater than operator compares the value on the left side with the value on the right side, checking if the left side is greater than the right side. Its syntax is =(value1 > value2). For example, if we have values in cells A3 and B3, the operation =(A3>B3) will return TRUE if the value in A3 is greater than the value in B3.
Less than or equal to (<=)
The less than or equal to operator checks if the value on the left side is less than or equal to the value on the right side. Its syntax is =(value1 <= value2). If we have values in cells A4 and B4, the operation =(A4<=B4) will return TRUE if the value in A4 is less than or equal to the value in B4.
Greater than or equal to (>=)
The greater than or equal to operator checks if the value on the left side is greater than or equal to the value on the right side. Its syntax is =(value1 >= value2). For example, if we have values in cells A3 and B3, the operation =(A3>=B3) will return TRUE if the value in A3 is greater than or equal to the value in B3.
Alternative Functions that Work as Comparison Operators
In addition to the six comparison operators mentioned above, Google Sheets also offers alternative comparison functions that work in the same way. They only differ in syntax. Here are the alternative comparison functions and their syntax:
- Equal to (=): EQ(value1, value2)
- Not equal to (<>): NE(value1, value2)
- Less than (<): LT(value1, value2)
- Greater than (>): GT(value1, value2)
- Less than or equal to (<=): LTE(value1, value2)
- Greater than or equal to (>=): GTE(value1, value2)
Applications of Comparison Operators
Comparison operators are incredibly versatile and can be applied in a variety of situations. Here are a few common applications:
- Conditional functions: Comparison operators are crucial in conditional functions like IF, SUMIF, and COUNTIF. For example, you can use comparison operators to display specific text when a condition is met, or to count the number of items that satisfy a certain criterion. Here’s an example using an IF statement:
=IF(B2="Sales","Yes","No") - Logical operators: By combining comparison operators with logical operators like AND, OR, or NOT, you can create even more complex conditions. This allows you to perform advanced data analysis and decision-making. Here’s an example:
=IF(AND(B2="Sales",C2>=30000),"Qualified","Not Qualified")
These are just a few examples of how comparison operators can be applied in your Google Sheets workflows. Now that you have a solid understanding of these operators, feel free to explore and experiment with them further!
I hope this comprehensive guide has been helpful to you. To learn more about Google Sheets and other powerful digital marketing tools, visit Crawlan.com. Happy spreadsheet-ing!
