How to Use the OR Function to Check Cells for Numbers in Excel

The OR function in Excel is a logical function that returns TRUE if any of the arguments are TRUE, and FALSE if all of the arguments are FALSE. The OR function can be used to check multiple conditions and perform different actions based on the result.

One of the common uses of the OR function is to check if a cell or a range of cells contains numbers. This can be useful for validating data, filtering data, or applying conditional formatting.

The syntax of the OR function is:

=OR(logical1, [logical2], ...)

• logical1 is the first condition to test. It can be a logical expression, a cell reference, a range of cells, or another function that returns a logical value (TRUE or FALSE).
• logical2, … are optional additional conditions to test. You can specify up to 255 conditions in the OR function.
• The OR function returns TRUE if any of the conditions are TRUE, and FALSE if all of the conditions are FALSE.

To check if a cell or a range of cells contains numbers, you can use the ISNUMBER function as an argument of the OR function. The ISNUMBER function returns TRUE if the value is a number, and FALSE otherwise.

For example, the formula =OR(ISNUMBER(A1), ISNUMBER(B1)) will return TRUE if either A1 or B1 contains a number, and FALSE if both A1 and B1 are not numbers.

Procedures

To use the OR function to check cells for numbers in Excel, follow these steps:

1. Select the cell where you want to enter the formula.
2. Type =OR( and then select the cell or the range of cells that you want to check for numbers. You can also type the cell references manually, separated by commas.
3. Type ) and press Enter to complete the formula.
4. The formula will return TRUE if any of the selected cells contains a number, and FALSE if none of the selected cells contains a number.
5. You can copy and paste the formula to other cells if you want to check more cells for numbers.

Explanation

To illustrate how the OR function works to check cells for numbers, let’s use an example scenario. Suppose you have a table of data that shows the sales of different products in different regions. You want to check if each row of the table contains valid numeric data, and highlight the rows that have invalid data.

Here is the table of data:

To check if each row contains valid numeric data, you can use the OR function with the ISNUMBER function in column D. The formula in D2 is:

=OR(ISNUMBER(C2))

This formula checks if C2 contains a number, and returns TRUE or FALSE. You can copy and paste the formula to the rest of the cells in column D.

The result is:

As you can see, the formula returns FALSE for the rows that have invalid data in column C, such as N/A or Error.

To highlight the rows that have invalid data, you can use conditional formatting with the same formula. Follow these steps:

1. Select the entire table of data, from A1 to D13.
2. Go to the Home tab, and click on Conditional Formatting.
3. Select New Rule, and then select Use a formula to determine which cells to format.
4. In the Format values where this formula is true box, enter the formula =NOT(OR(ISNUMBER($C2))). This formula is the opposite of the previous formula, and returns TRUE for the rows that have invalid data.
5. Click on Format, and choose a fill color or a font color to highlight the rows. For example, you can choose red fill color.
6. Click OK to apply the formatting.

The result is:

As you can see, the rows that have invalid data are highlighted in red.

Other Approaches

There are other ways to check cells for numbers in Excel, such as using the COUNT, COUNTA, or COUNTIF functions. These functions count the number of cells that meet certain criteria, such as being numbers, non-blank, or matching a specific value.

For example, you can use the COUNT function to check if a cell or a range of cells contains numbers. The syntax of the COUNT function is:

=COUNT(value1, [value2], ...)

• value1 is the first value to count. It can be a number, a cell reference, a range of cells, or another function that returns a number.
• value2, … are optional additional values to count. You can specify up to 255 values in the COUNT function.
• The COUNT function returns the number of cells that contain numbers.

To check if a cell or a range of cells contains numbers, you can compare the result of the COUNT function with the number of cells in the range. If the result is equal to the number of cells, then all the cells contain numbers. If the result is less than the number of cells, then some of the cells do not contain numbers.

For example, the formula =COUNT(C2:C13)=ROWS(C2:C13) will return TRUE if all the cells in the range C2:C13 contain numbers, and FALSE if some of the cells do not contain numbers.

You can also use the COUNTA function to check if a cell or a range of cells contains any non-blank values, or the COUNTIF function to check if a cell or a range of cells contains a specific value. The syntax of these functions are:

=COUNTA(value1, [value2], ...)
=COUNTIF(range, criteria)

• value1, value2, … are the same as in the COUNT function.
• range is the range of cells to count.
• criteria is the condition that the cells must meet to be counted. It can be a number, a text, a logical expression, a cell reference, or another function that returns a value.

For example, the formula =COUNTA(C2:C13)=ROWS(C2:C13) will return TRUE if all the cells in the range C2:C13 are non-blank, and FALSE if some of the cells are blank.

The formula =COUNTIF(C2:C13, "N/A")>0 will return TRUE if any of the cells in the range C2:C13 contains the value “N/A”, and FALSE otherwise.

You can use these functions in combination with the OR function or conditional formatting to check cells for numbers in Excel.