The EXACT function takes two arguments, text1 and text2, which should be valid text strings. If these values are entered directly into the function, they should be enclosed in double quotes ("").
Examples
Below are two examples of the EXACT function used with hardcoded strings. In the first example, the strings are identical, in the second example, the only difference is the capital “A”: In the example shown, the formula in D6, copied down the column, is: You can also use a normal equals sign (=) in a formula, but the comparison is not case sensitive: To count cells that contain specific text, taking into account upper and lower case characters, you can combine EXACT together with the SUMPRODUCT function like this: Detailed explanation here.
Notes
The standard equals to (=) operator is not case-sensitive. EXACT is meant for text values, and will convert numeric values to text.
Dave Bruns
Hi - I’m Dave Bruns, and I run Exceljet with my wife, Lisa. Our goal is to help you work faster in Excel. We create short videos, and clear examples of formulas, functions, pivot tables, conditional formatting, and charts.
