Text function
LOWER
Make it all lower case.
Purpose
Force a value into lower case
Returns
The same text, every letter in lower case
Syntax
=LOWER(text)
| Argument | Required | What goes here |
|---|---|---|
text | Required | The cell to put into lower case. |
How to use LOWER
LOWER is UPPER the other way round. Every letter comes back in lower case.
It is used for building a key: strip the case out of both sides of a comparison and inconsistent typing stops mattering.
As with UPPER, it does nothing about spaces, so it does not fix a padded value on its own.
Examples
Every result below is worked out by the same evaluator that marks your answers, on the sheet shown here.
| A | B | C | D | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Reference | Supplier name | Amount | Posted |
| 2 | GL-6100-8801 | brightwell paper | 1500 | Y |
| 3 | GL-6200-8802 | calder UTILITIES | 320 | y |
| 4 | GL-6100-8803 | meridian freight ltd | 2750 | |
| 5 | GL-6300-8804 | ashgrove catering | 184 | Y |
| 6 | GL-6200-8805 | THORNBURY print | 760 | |
| 7 | GL-6100-8806 | Brightwell Paper | 1120 | Y |
| Formula | Result |
|---|---|
=LOWER(B6)A shouted supplier name brought back down. | thornbury print |
=LOWER(TRIM(B2))Trimmed and lower-cased, which is what a matching key usually looks like. | brightwell paper |
=LOWER(TRIM(B7))=LOWER(TRIM(B2))Rows 2 and 7 are the same supplier, entered by two different people. Once both sides are trimmed and lower-cased, the comparison is about the name rather than about the typing. | TRUE |
Notes
- Excel compares text without regard to case anyway, so LOWER is about producing a tidy key, not about making a comparison work.