OR function

The Excel OR function is a logical function that allows you to check multiple conditions to see if at least one of them is true. It returns TRUE if any of the conditions are met and FALSE if none of them are met. This function is useful for making decisions based on multiple criteria.

Syntax

=OR(logical1, [logical2], [logical3], …)

Arguments

Here’s a table of the arguments for the OR function:

logical1	The first condition to check for a TRUE result.
[logical2]	(Optional) Additional conditions to check (up to 255 in total).

How to Use

You can use the OR function in Excel to evaluate multiple conditions and determine if at least one of them is true. Here’s how to use it with some examples:

Example 1:

Suppose you have a list of students, and you want to know if any of them scored higher than 90 on a test. You can use the OR function like this:

This formula will return TRUE if at least one of the test scores in cells A2, B2, C2, or D2 is greater than 90, indicating that at least one student performed exceptionally well.

Example 2:

Let’s say you have a task list, and you want to check if any of the tasks are marked as “Urgent” or “High Priority.” You can use the OR function like this:

This formula will return TRUE if the task in cell B2 is marked as “Urgent” or the task in cell C2 is marked as “High Priority,” indicating that there’s an urgent or high-priority task in the list.

Example 3:

If you want to check if a number is both greater than 50 and less than 100, you can use the OR function in combination with other logical functions like AND:

This formula will return TRUE only if the number in cell A1 is both greater than 50 and less than 100, effectively checking for a specific range of values.

Remember that the OR function can be used with a variety of conditions, making it a powerful tool for decision-making and data analysis in Excel.