If you have two values and want to find out whether they hold similar values or the first is greater than the second, you can use the >= operator whose syntax is:

Value1 >= Value2

If both Value1 and Value2 hold the same value, then the comparison renders a TRUE result. Similarly, if the left operand, Value1, holds a value greater than that of the right operand, Value2, the comparison still produces TRUE. If the value of Value1 is less than the value of Value2, the comparison produces a FALSE result

Therefore, < and >= are opposite.

Because Microsoft Excel is not a programming environment, it doesn't use conditional statements seen in traditional languages such as C/C++, Pascal, C#, Visual Basic, etc. Instead, Microsoft Excel provides functions that can perform the same types of tests on cells' values and produce the same types of results.

A logical function is one that evaluates an expression and returns a Boolean result. For example, imagine you have a series of cells that represent employees last name. If you are interested to know what cell doesn't have a value (a last name), you can use a function. On the other hand, imagine you have a cell that is supposed to indicate whether an item must receive a discount, you can use a conditional function to check it.

Most, if not all, logical functions check a condition and render a result. The condition is also called a criterion. A criterion can be something like "Check if the cell contains Male", or "Check if the salary is less than $12.35".

To check whether a criterion is true or false before taking a subsequent action, you can use the IF() function. Its syntax is:

IF(ConditionToTest, WhatToDoIfConditionIsTrue, WhatToDoIfConditionIsFalse)

When it is called, the IF() function checks the truthfulness or negativity of the ConditionToTest argument. If the result is true, then it will execute the first expression, WhatToDoIfConditionIsTrue in our syntax. If the result is false, it will consider the second option, the WhatToDoIfConditionIsFalse parameter in our syntax.

The IF() function we have introduced above is used to check one condition and then take one or the other action. In some cases, you will need to check more than one condition. In other words, you may want to check a first condition. If that condition is false, you may want to yet check another condition. The pseudo-code used for such a scenario is:

If Condition1 is True

Execute Statement1

Else If Condition2 is True

Execute Statement2

Else

Execute ElseStatement

Consequently, you can check as many conditions as you need to. The truthfulness of each condition would lead to its own statement. If none of the conditions is true, then you can execute the last statement. To implement this scenario, you can include an IF() function inside of another. You can also include as many IF() functions inside of other IF() functions.

We are going to use the IF() function to find out whether a student passes the mark or fails the class, based on the overall average of the student's grades. We will set the mark at 12.50. If a student's average is above 12.50, then he goes to the next grade, otherwise, …

In some cases you will need to count the frequency of (the number of times that) a value repeat itself in a series of cells. For example, suppose you have a list of students recognized by their gender using a certain column. Provided the genders are, for example, Male or Female. You may be interested in knowing the number of boys. In this case you can count the number of occurrences of Male in the range of cells.

The count the number of occurrences of a value in a series, you can use the COUNTIF() function. Its syntax is

COUNTIF(Range, Criteria)

The functions include MDETERM, MINVERSE, MMULT, PRODUCT, SUMSQ, SUMX2MY2, SUMX2PY2, and SUMXMY2.

The CONCATENATE() function is used to add two or more strings to create a new string.

1. Open the Red Oak High School5 workbook
2. Click the Student Registration worksheet and view the structure and data on various cells. We are going to use one worksheet to get a summary of each student’s grades. Since we are using one worksheet to register students, we will make sure that the worksheet used for registration supplies the students names to the worksheet used for summary grades. To see how it is done, we will practice only on the 6th Grade worksheet.
3. Click the 6th Grade worksheet to activate it.
4. In cell B8, type =CONCATENATE(
5. Click the Student Registration sheet to make it active
6. In the Student Registration sheet, click cell B8 (Brigitte)
7. Type ,
8. Type “ Space “,
9. Still in the Student Registration sheet, click cell D8
10. Press Enter.
11. You should be back in the 6th Grade worksheet, otherwise, click the 6th Grade worksheet to active it. 
    Observe the result in cell B8. Click cell B8 and notice the CONCATENATE function in the Formula Bar: =CONCATENATE('Students Info'!B35," ",'Students Info'!D35)
12. At this time, you could simply copy cell B8 to other cells but Microsoft Excel would not replicate the formatting (background) applied to other cells as they alternate. So, we are going to use a technique to copy both the formulas and the formatting of the cells. First we will apply the CONCATENATE function again in a cell that is formatted differently.
    Still in the 6th Grade worksheet, click cell B9 and type =CONCATENATE(
13. Click the Student Registration worksheet to make it active
14. Click B9
15. Type ,” Space “,
16. Click cell D9 and press Enter.
17. In the 6th Grade worksheet, select cells B8:B9
18. Drag the Fill Handle of the selection down to B32
19. Select cells B8:B9 again
20. Drag their Fill Handle up to cell B6
21. Press Ctrl + Home. Scroll up and down to check the result.
22. Notice the last name of the first student, Song, and the first name of the 6th student, Bobby.
    To check that the cells are linked, click the Student Registration worksheet to activate it.
23. In cell D6, notice the last name of the first student, Song, and the first name of the 6th student, Bobby. In cell D6, type Singers. In cell B11, type Robert. Press Enter
24. Click the 6th Grade worksheet and notice the name changed in cells D6 and B11.
25. Click the Students Grades Summary worksheet and notice that it is empty at this time.
26. Click the 6th Grade worksheet. Select cells B6:G32
27. Click the Students Grades Summary worksheet to activate it
28. Right-click cell B6 and click Paste Special…
    
    
29. From the Paste Special dialog, click Paste Link. Notice the values displayed.
30. Click the 6th Grade worksheet to activate it. Select cells H6:J32
31. Press Ctrl + C to copy the selected cells
32. Click the Students Grades Summary sheet
33. Right-click cell P6, click Paste Special… and click Paste Link
34. To save your workbook, on the Standard toolbar, click Save