AI filtered “paid and East.” Did it actually keep “paid or East”?

Write the intended condition in plain words, then check cases that meet only one part. AND and OR can return very different lists.

For “paid AND East,” a row must satisfy both conditions. For “paid OR East,” satisfying either is enough. Microsoft’s FILTER examples use multiplication of Boolean tests for AND and addition for OR.

Four invented rows expose the difference

A is paid/East, B paid/West, C unpaid/East and D unpaid/West. Our local Boolean calculation returned A for AND, and A, B, C for OR. The rows that meet only one condition reveal a mistake that testing A alone would miss.

Translate the rule before checking the formula

Suggested input: “Return rows whose status is paid and region is East. Both conditions must be true. Predict the result for these four rows before proposing a formula.” If the intended rule is either condition, say that explicitly instead.

A documented Excel pattern

If A2:C5 holds the example, status is in B and region in C, the AND pattern is =FILTER(A2:C5,(B2:B5="paid")*(C2:C5="East"),""). Replacing * with + changes this example to OR. This formula follows the official pattern; it was not executed in Excel.

Check inclusion, not only totals

Compare the returned row identifiers with the expected set, including the one-condition cases and the neither-condition case. A plausible count or total does not tell you that the right rows were selected. Confirm ranges and the intended empty-result behavior before applying it to real records.

Published October 14, 2026. Only a fictional four-row truth table was tested in Python. We did not run Excel, Copilot, a real workbook or an AI-generated formula.

Sources: Microsoft · FILTER.