A to Z of Excel Functions: The DELTA Function

Welcome back to our regular A to Z of Excel Functions blog.  Today we look at the DELTA function.

The DELTA function

Probably not a function you are going to use every day of the week.  Or any for that matter.  This (sort of) replaces the equals operator (“=”) in that it gives it a “Goodrem” for its money…  Essentially, this function tests whether two values are equal, returning 1 if number1 = number2, otherwise it returns 0 (zero).  You may use this function to filter a set of values.  For example, by summing several DELTA functions you calculate the count of equal pairs.  This function is also known as the Kronecker Delta function.

The DELTA function employs the following syntax to operate:

The DELTA function has the following arguments:

• number1: this is required and represents the first number
• number2: this argument is optional. This is the second number. If omitted, number2 is assumed to be zero.

It should be further noted that:

• If number1 is non-numeric, DELTA returns the #VALUE! error value
• If number2 is non-numeric, DELTA returns the #VALUE! error value.

Please see my example below:

We’ll continue our A to Z of Excel Functions soon. Keep checking back – there’s a new blog post every business day.

A full page of the function articles can be found here.