How To Use NOT function in Excel Explained with Examples

What is NOT function in Excel?

The NOT function in Excel reverses the value of its argument. It is often used in combination with other functions such as IF or AND to perform logical operations in a spreadsheet.

Summary

Function Definition
About Function
Function Syntax
Example
How to use Function in your workbook
Frequently Asked Questions
More similar formulas

Description

The NOT formula in Excel is a logical function that inverts the value of its argument. It is used to change a TRUE value to FALSE or a FALSE value to TRUE. It is useful when you want to make a logical test for the opposite of a condition.

The syntax for the function is =NOT(logical_test), where the logical_test is a value or a reference to a cell that contains a value.

The function returns the opposite of the logical test, TRUE if the logical test is false, and FALSE if the logical test is true. It can be used in combination with other logical functions like the AND and OR functions to create more complex logical tests.

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NOT Function Syntax

=NOT(logical)

Where “logical” is the value or reference to a cell that you want to test. The function returns the opposite of the logical test, TRUE if the logical test is false, and FALSE if the logical test is true.

For example:

=NOT(A1=B1)

This formula checks whether the value in cell A1 is equal to the value in cell B1, and if it isn’t equal, it returns TRUE, otherwise, it returns FALSE.

Example No.1

Not function MS Excel - Excel Formulas and Functions - Excel Functions Explained

In the example above we used the NOT formula to match numbers in columns F and G to see if the values match we used “=” between values. If the value in both columns is the same function will return FALSE. If the values in both columns matches function will return TRUE.

Example No.2 with NOT function

NOT function in excel - excel formulas and functions - ajelix

In this example, we used the greater than symbol “>” to match if the number in column F is greater than the number in column G. If the number in column F is greater—the function will return FALSE.

This formula might be helpful in some cases but if you need to compare data in columns we suggest doing it without this function. See the example below.

Example No.3 Compare Data Without NOT Function

NOT function example without NOT function -compare data in columns

In this example, you can see that we compared the same data in columns F and G without using the NOT formula. You can see that if the number in column F is greater than the data in column G then the function returns TRUE.

The result in the example would be FALSE.

How to use NOT function in your workbook:

Open the Microsoft Excel spreadsheet that contains the data you want to use the formula on.
Enter the NOT into a cell. The syntax of the function is: =NOT(logical_expression).
Replace the “logical_expression” portion of the function with the cell reference of the cell containing the value you want to reverse.
Press “Enter” on your keyboard. The value of the cell should now be reversed.
Repeat the steps above for each cell where you want to use the NOT formula.

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Frequently Asked Questions

How to use the NOT formula in Excel?

The NOT formula in Excel is used to reverse the value of its argument. For example, if the argument is TRUE, the function will return FALSE. To use this function, enter the formula =NOT(logical) into a cell, replacing “logical“ with a value or cell reference.