Excel's COUNTIF() function returns a wrong count

Question

Spent an hour on this but can't figure out what seems to be the problem. Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

Put in the =

=COUNTIF(A13:A15,"=<abc")

The mathematical sequence is >= or <= not => and =<, so countif will see the beginning < or > as Greater than or Less than, but if it is preceded by the = it assumes it is part of the text and not the mathematical operand.