OR returns TRUE when at least one condition is true. Use it inside IF to trigger actions when any one of several criteria is met.
OR tests multiple conditions and returns TRUE if at least one of them is true. If every condition is FALSE, OR returns FALSE. Think of it as "any of these" logic — a row qualifies if it meets condition 1, OR condition 2, OR condition 3 — it only needs one.
OR is most commonly used inside IF formulas to broaden what qualifies for a result. Without OR, you would need nested IFs to check multiple possibilities. With OR, you test them all at once in a single clean formula.
=OR(logical1, [logical2], ...)| Argument | Description |
|---|---|
| logical1 required | The first condition to test — evaluates to TRUE or FALSE. |
| [logical2] ... optional | Additional conditions. At least one must be TRUE for OR to return TRUE. Up to 255 conditions. |
=OR(A2="London", A2="Manchester", A2="Birmingham")Returns TRUE if A2 is any one of the three cities. Much cleaner than =IF(A2="London",TRUE,IF(A2="Manchester",TRUE,FALSE)).
=IF(OR(B2="Overdue", C2<0, D2="Cancelled"), "Review", "")Flags a row if it is overdue, negative, OR cancelled — any one of the three triggers the flag.
=IF(OR(B2>=90, C2="Top performer"), "Bonus", "Standard")=OR($A1="Overdue", $C1<0)Use as a conditional formatting rule to highlight entire rows where any concerning condition exists.
=SUMPRODUCT(((A2:A100="North")+(A2:A100="South")>0)*C2:C100)For multi-row OR logic in calculations, SUMPRODUCT with + achieves OR — a row contributes if either condition is true.
OR returns TRUE or FALSE, so it slots naturally into IF as the condition:
=IF(OR(condition1, condition2, ...), value_if_true, value_if_false)
This is far cleaner than nested IF chains when checking multiple possible values. The more conditions you need to check, the bigger the advantage of OR.
You can nest AND inside OR or OR inside AND to create compound conditions:
Must be Active AND (Gold OR Platinum):
=IF(AND(C2="Active", OR(B2="Gold", B2="Platinum")), "VIP", "Standard")
Read it as: "if the customer is Active and they are either Gold or Platinum, they are VIP."
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