What does this mean? "="

[Harvey Waxman]

I have never seen this operator "<>"
before. Does it mean 'nothing' and does "=" mean 'anything'?
Can this be used with an IF statement in the same way?

 

[Niek Otten]

"<>" means "unequal to", just like "=" means "equal to"

 

[Harvey Waxman]

"<>" means "unequal to", just like "=" means "equal to"

Here's the whole formula,

{=SUMIF(G18:G17800,"<>",F18:F17800)/SUMIF(G18:G17800,"<>",D1817800)-1}

What is "<>" unequal to?

 

[macropod]

Hi Harvey,

'<>' is the same as 'Not Equal To'.

 

[Harvey Waxman]

Hi Harvey,

'<>' is the same as 'Not Equal To'.

But in the formula

{=SUMIF(G18:G17800,"<>",F18:F17800)/SUMIF(G18:G17800,"<>",D1817800)-1}

there is nothing that "<>" not unequal to.

The formula divides the total values of column entries (F) that
correspond with non-blank entries in a reference column (G) by similar
values in another column (D) that also reference (G).

If I substitute "=" it references blank entries in column (G) and gives
the right answer also.

 

[Laroche J]

Harvey Waxman wrote on 2009-05-17 20:24:

But in the formula

{=SUMIF(G18:G17800,"<>",F18:F17800)/SUMIF(G18:G17800,"<>",D1817800)-1}

there is nothing that "<>" not unequal to.

The formula divides the total values of column entries (F) that
correspond with non-blank entries in a reference column (G) by similar
values in another column (D) that also reference (G).

If I substitute "=" it references blank entries in column (G) and gives
the right answer also.

Actually, "<>" by itself, in a SUMIF, means "not equal to nothing", in other
words "consider only the cells which are not empty". There is no other way
to represent "nothing" than by writing nothing. You could have "<>3", that
would mean "consider only the cells where the content is not equal to 3".

Same thing with "=" by itself, which takes the meaning of "equal to
nothing", in other words "consider only the cells which are empty". You
could have "=3", that would mean "consider only the cells where the content
is equal to 3".

By the way, it's not necessary to make your formula an array formula (with
the braces), the result is the same.

JL
Mac OS X 10.4.11
Office v.X 10.1.9

 

[Harvey Waxman]

Harvey Waxman wrote on 2009-05-17 20:24:


Actually, "<>" by itself, in a SUMIF, means "not equal to nothing", in other
words "consider only the cells which are not empty". There is no other way
to represent "nothing" than by writing nothing. You could have "<>3", that
would mean "consider only the cells where the content is not equal to 3".

Same thing with "=" by itself, which takes the meaning of "equal to
nothing", in other words "consider only the cells which are empty". You
could have "=3", that would mean "consider only the cells where the content
is equal to 3".

By the way, it's not necessary to make your formula an array formula (with
the braces), the result is the same.

Many thanks. My original question asked if "=" meant equal to nothing
and "<>" meant equal to anything. I guess I was close.

The SUMIF's and SUM's and IF's are confusing to me and the use or non
use of quotes and commas doesn't help.

Thanks again

 

[Carl Witthoft]

Many thanks. My original question asked if "=" meant equal to nothing
and "<>" meant equal to anything. I guess I was close.

The SUMIF's and SUM's and IF's are confusing to me and the use or non
use of quotes and commas doesn't help.

Thanks again

I know I'm biased, but given both the difficulty in using Excel to do
this sort of stuff, and your obvious confusion with Excel's syntax, you
really ought to give serious thought to learning a mathematical language
such as R or MatLab, or even YACAS. You will be able to create
variables, write syntactically obvious loops, etc, and probably get your
jobs done a lot faster.