In Google Sheets, we use “” as the “does not equal” symbol in formulas.
For example, we can use the following formula to determine if the value in cell A2 is equal to “Guard”:
=A2"Guard"
If the value in cell A2 is not equal to “Guard” then the formula will return TRUE. Otherwise, the formula will return FALSE.
We can also use the “” symbol to determine if two cell values are not equal. For example, we can use the following formula to determine if the value in cells B2 and C2 are not equal:
=B2C2
If the values in B2 and C2 are not equal, then the formula will return TRUE. Otherwise, it will return FALSE.
The following examples show how to use this syntax in practice.
Example 1: Use “Does Not Equal” with String
Suppose we have the following dataset in Google Sheets that contains information about various basketball players:
We can use the following formula to determine if the value in the Position column is equal to “Guard” in each row:
=A2"Guard"
The following screenshot shows how to use this formula in practice:
The formula in the first row returns FALSE because the value in the Position column actually is equal to “Guard.”
However, the formula in the last row returns TRUE because the value in the Position column is not equal to “Guard.”
Example 2: Use “Does Not Equal” to Compare Cell Values
Once again suppose we have the following dataset in Google Sheets:
We can use the following formula to determine if the value in column B and column C is not equal in each row:
=B2C2
The following screenshot shows how to use this formula in practice:
The formula in the first row returns TRUE because the Game 1 points value and Game 2 points value are indeed not equal.
However, the formula in the second row returns FALSE because the Game 1 points value and Game 2 points value are actually equal.
Additional Resources
The following tutorials explain how to perform other common operations in Google Sheets:
How to Sum Filtered Rows in Google Sheets
How to Filter Multiple Columns in Google Sheets
How to Use SUMIF with Multiple Columns in Google Sheets