Comparison Operators

Part of the Fundamentals section of Coddy's Excel journey — lesson 36 of 42.

The condition inside an IF is built from a comparison operator. There are six, and together they can ask any yes/no question about numbers:

>    greater than
<    less than
>=   greater than or equal (at least)
<=   less than or equal (at most)
=    equal to
<>   not equal to

The odd one out is <>, Excel's way of saying not equal. =IF(B2<>B1,"different","equal") shows different whenever the two cells don't match.

A curious fact: you can type a comparison as a formula all by itself, like =B2>B1. On this worksheet it shows 1 when the comparison holds and 0 when it doesn't, a raw yes/no as a number. It's a neat trick for peeking at a condition, but 1s and 0s make for cryptic spreadsheets. Wrapping the comparison in an IF turns that raw answer into words anyone can read.

Choosing between the close cousins matters: > versus >= only disagree when the two sides are exactly equal, and that's precisely where off-by-one bugs live. When you write a condition, always ask yourself: what should happen at the boundary?

Challenge

Easy

A small sales sheet: A1 says Target with the target in B1, and A2 says Sales with this month's sales in B2.

Write three IF formulas, each using a different comparison operator:

In C1: show hit if sales are at least the target, otherwise missed
In C2: show under if sales are below the target, otherwise not under
In C3: show different if sales and target are not equal, otherwise equal