The Excel Exact Function

Function Description

The Excel Exact function tests if two supplied text strings or values are exactly equal and if so, returns TRUE; Otherwise, the function returns FALSE.

The function is case-sensitive.

The syntax of the Exact function is:

EXACT( text1, text2 )

Where the text1 and text2 arguments are the two text strings, numbers or logical values that you want to compare for equality.

Exact Function Examples

In the following spreadsheet, the Excel Exact function is used to compare four different pairs of text strings.

Formulas:

	A	B	C
1	Text	Text	=EXACT( A1, B1 )
2	Text	text	=EXACT( A2, B2 )
3	5321.222	5321.222	=EXACT( A3, B3 )
4	0.5	12:00	=EXACT( A4, B4 )
5

Results:

	A	B	C
1	Text	Text	TRUE
2	Text	text	FALSE
3	5321.222	5321.222	TRUE
4	0.5	12:00	TRUE	(A4 & B4 both have value 0.5)
5				(A4 & B4 both have value 0.5)

Note that, in the above examples:

As the Excel Exact function is case-sensitive, the function in cell C2 returns FALSE;
The time 12:00 (in cell B4) has the underlying value of 0.5 in Excel. Therefore the values in cells A4 and B4 are exactly equal (it is just the formatting of these two cells that is different).

Further examples of the Excel Exact function are provided on the Microsoft Office website.

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