IF Statement Logical Test

[Bob_W]

Apologies if this is a ridiculous question but please bear with me.

I recently inherited a workbook which was designed and built by a former colleague. Whilst working through the logic to ensure I understood what is happening in the various formulae and lookups, I've noticed a simple IF statement that I'm surprised works. It is:

=IF(A2>0,A2,"No")

Column A contains either:
- a 2-digit code formatted as Text and these codes are a combination of alpha & numeric characters, such as 1L, 2L, EF, IE, 5D, etc
- a 0 (zero)
- or the cell is [blank]

So my question is, why does the formula give True when the cell value is anything other than 0 or [blank]. Sure the logic test is numerical and therefore would only give true for a number value greater than 0. I would expect any kind of text string to give false. Or is there something obvious I am missing??

Thanks in advance.

 

[Fluff]

In Excel a string is considered to be larger than any number.

 

[Bob_W]

In Excel a string is considered to be larger than any number.

Thanks, so it really is that simple! All these years I've been doing much more complicated formulae to achieve the same outcome! Every day's a school day as they say!

 

[Fluff]

Yup, it really is that simple.
Glad to help & thanks for the feedback.