Greater than and less than in Microsoft Excel 

Excel enables users to perform complex calculations, analysis, and data comparisons. Among these functionalities, the “less than” and “greater than” operators play a crucial role in identifying and manipulating data based on specific criteria. 

In this article, we will explore how to utilize the power of “less than” and “greater than” in Excel to enhance your data analysis and decision-making capabilities.

Comparing Cell Values

The “less than” and “greater than” operators are commonly used to compare values in Microsoft Excel. We can check whether a cell has a value less than, greater than, or even not equal to, by utilizing the “less than” and “greater than” operators.

Use 1: Checking If Cell Values are Less Than or Greater Than

The first option to use these operators is to employ them separately to evaluate a logical condition. Let’s say we have a list of products and their prices, and we want to find out which products we can afford within our budget i.e. $500.

Step 1 – Utilizing the “Less Than” Operator

• In an empty cell, Input the reference of the cell containing the price of the first product.
• Place the “Less than (<)” operator.
• Input the budget in which we aim to purchase the products.
• Hit the Enter key.

Step 2 – Utilize Autofill to Apply the Formulae on Each Product

• Utilize Autofill to apply the formula on each product.
• Now, we can easily find the products within our budget i.e. the cells that return “True” will fall in our budget.

Step 3 – Replace the “Less than” with “Equal Than” Operator

• Replace the “Less than (<) operator” with the “Greater than (>)” operator.

Use 2: Checking Equal or not by using greater than and less than operators together (<>)

The second and most important purpose for which we can utilize the “Less than” and “Greater than” operators is to check whether the cells are equal or not. In this case, both less than and greater than signs are used together to create a condition called “Not Equal to”.

Now, let’s say we have the same list of products and we only want the product with a price exactly equal to $500.

Step 1 – Utilizing “Less than” and “Greater than” Operators

• In an empty cell, Input the reference of the cell containing the price of the first product.
• Place the “Less than (<)” operator and the “Greater than (>)” operator.
• Input the price at which we aim to purchase the product.
• Hit the Enter key.

Step 2 – Utilize Autofill to Apply the Formulae on Each Product

• Utilize Autofill to apply the formula on each product.
• Now, we can easily find the product according to our price i.e. the cells that return “True” will be the product with the price of $500.