Change True to False and False to True with this simple function in Excel.
To do this, we use the NOT function.
=NOT(logical)
Argument | Description |
---|---|
Logical |
The value that should have its result reversed. Input TRUE and it becomes FALSE and FALSE and it becomes TRUE. You can put a cell reference, an actual value, or a logical function in for this argument. |
The NOT function is a logical function in Excel that simply changes the output of other logical functions.
Remember that a logical function is any function that evaluates to either True or False.
For this example, I will use a basic list of values in order to make things simple.
Let's say that we want to have a list of data where each cell in a row evaluates to False; if each row is False, then we are happy and want to output a positive result "True" in another cell.
Here is our sample data:
The highlighted row is the only one that we want to recognize and we want to do this by outputting TRUE in column C row 3.
The first step is to create an OR function that checks column A and B. This function will check if the value in column A OR column B is True.
Copy the function down and we get this:
3 True values and one False value.
In this case, we simply want to reverse the result so that we get only a True value when there is a False in both column A and B.
To do this, surround the OR function with the NOT function:
Copy the formula down and we get the desired result:
The NOT function is simple and, at first, it seems rather useless. However, I can assure you that when you work with more complex logical statements, or even the simple example in this tutorial, the NOT function is a life-saver. Just keep this function in the back of your mind so you can use it when needed.
Download the accompanying spreadsheet for this tutorial to see this example in Excel.