Excel change string to boolean operation

Question

Assuming Cell A1 contains 2 (as a number) and Cell B1 contains „<=5“ (as a string), how can I check in cell C1 if 2 is smaller or equal than 5, as =A1&B1 returns „2<=5“ (as a string) and =evaluate(A1&B1) returns an error (#value)?

As the operation might change depending on cell content (for example < instead of <= or also > or >=) I can’t simply extract the number from cell B1 and use it (or I would have to manually check additionally which operation is used and also prepare something like a switch operation)

The excel version is a non-M365 version (Excel 2021).

Answer 1

You can do =COUNTIF(A1, B1)

Or if you want to return True or False do: =IF(COUNTIF(A1, B1) = 1, TRUE, FALSE)

Or as suggested by FlexYourData: =COUNTIF(A1, B1)=1 , even shorter, this will also return TRUE or FALSE