Logical

NOT Formula

NOT reverses a logical value: TRUE becomes FALSE and FALSE becomes TRUE. It is used to negate conditions, check for inequality, filter for items that do not match criteria, or invert the result of other logical functions like AND or OR.

Syntax

NOT(logical)
ParameterDescription
logical Parameter of the NOT function.
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Examples

Check if a cell is not empty

Formula
=IF(NOT(ISBLANK(A2)), "Has Data", "Empty")
Returns: "Has Data" if A2 contains any value, "Empty" if it is blank

Invert a condition

Formula
=IF(NOT(B2="Cancelled"), B2*C2, 0)
Returns: the line total for all orders that are NOT cancelled

Filter non-errors

Formula
=IF(NOT(ISERROR(A2/B2)), A2/B2, "")
Returns: the division result if it does not produce an error, blank otherwise

Common Errors

#VALUE!

The argument is not a logical value or expression. NOT requires something that evaluates to TRUE or FALSE.

Tips

NOT with AND/OR

=NOT(AND(A1,B1)) is TRUE when at least one is FALSE. =NOT(OR(A1,B1)) is TRUE only when both are FALSE.

Simpler alternatives

Instead of NOT(A1=B1), you can use A1<>B1 directly. NOT is most useful for inverting function results like NOT(ISBLANK(A1)).

COUNTIF negation

=COUNTIF(A:A, "<>" & B1) counts cells not equal to B1 — often simpler than using NOT.

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