Excel Not Equal To (Table of Contents)
Not Equal To in Excel
In Microsoft excel we are aware of operators like arithmetic and logical operators. Logical operators are mostly used in any organization to compare the two values either it is true or false.
This logical operator is also called Boolean operator (true or false) because it allows us to find out whether the values are not equal to one another, if the values are equal it will return false or else it will return true.
In Microsoft excel we normally used the sign “<>” to denote not equal to. This “<>” operator checks if the two values are not equal to each other.
Not Equal To “=<>” in excel we normally use this formula as =A1<>B1 where this formula returns TRUE if a value in cell A1 is not equal to the value in cell B1 and it will return false if the value in cell A1 is equal to the value in cell B1.
How to Put ‘ Not Equal To ‘ in Excel?
Not Equal To in Excel is very simple and easy to use. Let’s understand the working of Not Equal To Operator in Excel by some examples.
Example #1 – Using ‘ Not Equal To Excel ‘ Operator
In this example, we are going to see how to use the Not Equal To logical operation <> in excel.
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Consider the below example which has values in both the columns now we are going to check the Brand MRP of Amazon and Flipkart.
Now we are going to check that Amazon MRP is not equal to Flipkart MRP by following the below steps.
- Create a new column.
- Apply the formula in excel as shown below.
- So as we can see in the above screenshot we applied the formula as =B3<>C3 here we can see that in B3 column Amazon MRP is 1400 and Flipkart MRP is 1400 so the MRP matches exactly.
- Excel will check if B3 values are not equal to C3 then it returns TRUE or else it will return FALSE.
- Here in the above screenshot, we can see that Amazon MRP is equal to Flipkart MRP so we will get the output as FALSE which is shown in the below screenshot.
- Drag down the formula for the next cell. So the output will be as below:
- We can see that the formula =B4<>C4, in this case, Amazon MRP is not equal to Flipkart MRP. So excel will return the output as TRUE as shown below.
Example #2 -Using String
In this excel example, we are going to see how not equal to excel operator works in strings. Consider the below example which shows two different titles named for Amazon and Flipkart.
Here we are going to check that Amazon title name is matching with the Flipkart title name by following the below steps.
- First, create a new column called Output.
- Apply the formula as =A2<>B2.
- So the above formula will check for A2 title name is not equal to B2 title name if it is not equal it will return FALSE or else it will return TRUE. As we can see that both the title names are same and it will return the output as FALSE which is shown in the below screenshot.
- Drag down the same formula for the next cell. So the output will be as below:
- As =A3<>B3 where we can see A3 title is not equal to B3 title so we will get the output as TRUE which is shown as the output in the below screenshot.
Example #3 – Using IF Statement
In this excel example, we are going to see how to use if statement in Not Equal To operator.
Consider the below example, where we have title names of both Flipkart and Paytm as shown below.
Now we are going to apply Not Equal To Excel operator inside the if statement to check both the title names are equal or not equal by following the below steps.
- Create a new column as Output.
- Now apply the if condition statement as follows =IF(A2<>B2,”Title Not Matching”,”Title Matching”)
- Here in the if condition we used not equal to Operator to check both the title are equal to or not equal to.
- Moreover, we have mentioned in the if condition in double quotes as “Title Not Matching” i.e if it is not equal to it will return as “Title Not Matching” or else it will return “Title Matching” as shown in the below screenshot.
- As we can see that both the title names are different and it will return the output as Title Not Matching which is shown in the below screenshot.
- Drag down the same formula for the next cell.
- In this example, we can see that A3 title is equal to B3 title hence we will get the output as “Title Matching ” which is shown as the output in the below screenshot.
Example #4 – Using the COUNTIF Function
In this excel example, we are going to see how the COUNTIF Function works in Not Equal To operator.
Consider the below example which shows students subject marks along with the grade.
Here we are going to count how many students have taken the marks in it equal to 94 by following the below steps.
- Create a new row named as Marks Not Equal To 50.
- Now apply the COUNTIF formula as =COUNTIF(C2:C7,”<>50″)
- As we can see the above screenshot we have applied COUNTIF function to find out Student marks not equal to 50. We have selected the cells C2:C7 and in the double quotes we have used <> not equal to Operator and mentioned the number 50.
- The above formula counts the student’s marks which is not equal to 50 and return the output as 5 as shown in the below result.
- In the below screenshot we can see that marks not equal to 50 are 5 i.e. Five students scored marks more than 50.
- Now we will use string to check the student’s grade stating how many students are not equal to the grade “Very Good” which is shown in the below screenshot.
- For this, we can apply the formula as =COUNTIF(D2:D7,”<>”& A9).
- So this COUNTIF function will find the students grade from the range we have specified D2:D7 with using the Not Equal To Excel OPERATOR and the grade variable “VERY GOOD” has been concatenated by the operator “&” by specifying A9. Which will give us the result of 3 i.e. 3 students grade are not equal to “Very Good” which is shown in the below output.
Things to Remember About Not Equal To in Excel
- In Microsoft excel logical operators mostly used in conditional formatting which will give us the perfect result.
- Not Equal To operator always requires at least two values to check either it is “TRUE” or “FALSE”.
- Make sure that you are giving correct condition statement while using Not Equal To operator or else we will get an invalid result.
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