Comments on: Excel conditional formatting formulas based on another cell

This tutorial explains how to use Excel formulas to format cells and entire rows based on the values you specify or based on another cell's value, and provides a handful of formula examples. Continue reading →

Comments page 24. Total comments: 1726

  1. Hello,

    Is there a way to make the application of a formula in one cell conditional upon whether or not another cell is blank?

    E.g. If cell C1 contains a number, I want cell D1 to return the value of C1/366. If cell C1 is blank, I want cell D1 to be blank.

    At the moment, I have got to a stage where if cell C1 contains a number, D1 displays (in text) "=C1/366" and does not process the formula.

    1. Hi Josie,

      Sure, you need to use the IF function in D1:
      =IF(C1<>"",C1/366,"")

      It says if C1 is not empty, divide it by 366, otherwise leave the cell blank.

      I hope this helps.

  2. Hi,

    I need your help. I am using conditional formatting>New Rule>Format only cells that contains>specific text. formatting is working i am using colors in that red and green Green for with in limit and Red is for Breach. applied formatting works properly but actual problem is when i closed file after save next time that formatting removed.

    what is the reason behind why this happening? why that formatting not saved with that file ?

    can any body help me out please in this regard ?

  3. Hi, I need to highlight values on a spread sheet in column F if the value is bigger than the value in column D. How do I write the formula for the whole column without doing it one for one.

    1. Hi Willie,

      Just enter the dollar sign before the names of the columns in your formula, e.g.
      =$F2>$D2

      You also need to make sure "Applies to" range contains all records in column F, so when you click "Manage rules", you will see "=$F$2:$F$350" under "Applies to" if you have 350 rows.

      Let me know if you have any other questions.

  4. I am creating a large excel document that has information populating though it. If I have a cell on one page showing ten items, i would like on another page where it will populate over ten cells showing one item all with that same discription. is there a way to do this? I really need to! To explain further - on one page it is a quote which says 10 doors, on another page i want it to populate 1 door ten times where there will be further information added for an architect to review.

  5. namaste,

    Excel formulas for conditional formatting based on another cell value

    in that i need time conditional formatting
    my travel time stated time 7:00 i should reached 8:00if above 1 hour diff should be diff coloer

    Need you advice .

  6. HI, i need to put in a column:
    in green: different texts, aleatory
    in red: NO
    in yellow: DEF
    gray:nothing
    i already put red, yellows and gray conditions.
    so, for green: edit formating rule/format only cell contain/ not equal to/=AND("NO";"DEF")
    doont work, dont bring me anything in green.
    help¡?

    1. Hi Zak,

      Please include a cell reference into your formula:
      =AND($H2<>"NO",$H2<>"",$H2<>"DEF")

      I hope this helps.

  7. Hi,

    Svetlana,

    We need your help we want to use conditional formatting on a sheet 1 column A but references is on another sheet 2, If in Sheet 2 Column B Value is greater than Column A, than Sheet 1 Column A should be highlight reflect as color

    1. Hello,

      To compare values in different sheets, you need to include the name of the sheet to the cell reference, so your formula will look this way:
      =Sheet2!$B2>Sheet1!$A2

      Please also make sure you apply the rule to column A in Sheet 1.

  8. Hi Svetlana, Can I use conditional formatting on one sheet and monitor a cell on another sheet? So I want a cell on one sheet to change colors when the cell on another sheet has specific text or numbers.

    1. Hi Todd,

      Sure, you just need to add the name of the sheet to the reference in your formula, e.g. if you want to monitor the value in A2 in Sheet 2, here is how it should look:

      =Sheet2!$A$2="Value"

  9. Good afternoon,
    Can you please assist me with the following:

    If cell B4 contains the two letter code v6, reflect in
    cell R4: September 15th.

  10. If cell J8 value is 5 and cell K8 value is 2 and I want cell G8 to list the value from J8 when K8 is 2...how do I formulate that?

    1. Hello Todd,

      If you want to display the value from J8 when K8 is 2, then you need a simple IF statement in G8:
      =IF(K8=2,J8,"")

      If you want to get the value from J8 if both conditions are true: K8 contains 2 AND J8 contains 5, then you need the following formula in G8:
      =IF(AND(J8=5,K8=2),J8,"")

  11. Hi, can you please help me find a formula for my query. I want to conditional format and show me where a figure reduces to zero in a column. I'm checking leave audits and need to identify where someone's balance has been taken off them. So basically just identifying zeros isn't enough, I need to show where the preceding cell above had a figure and then in the next it is zero.

  12. Hello Svetlana
    Following your formula suggestion which should conditionally format a date in column E based on the open or closed status appearing in column H, I am finding the same results despite the status.

    I am attempting to use the following formula:

    =AND($E6<TODAY(), $H6="O")
    As certain as can be, I have checked all your listed reasons why this may not work. The result I am getting is exactly the same as it would be for, =$E6<TODAY()

    Any help you can give would be immensely appreciated. Please!

  13. 20
    30
    40
    50
    20

    sum = 160 my query is i want sum 190 then i am having freedom to change the cell value (30) what is option of reverse caluclation

  14. I have two columns containing sub totals. In the first column I have number and text mixed like ' 1 count ',' 2 count ' etc. In the second column there are values corresponding to sub totals. I tried to find out the highest value in column B. However the secondary sub totals had to be ignored as they were nothing but sum of first set of sub totals. The formula I used in the new rule, was =and(isnumber(search("count",$A1)),$B1=max($B:$B)). But nothing gets highlighted. Please help

  15. I am trying to create a formula for the following
    I want the number 2 to be generated in the selected cell when all the values in three separate cells are below a specific number, if this statement is not true than I want a value of 0 generated.
    I have tried several formulas and none seem to work, my latest try was with the following:
    =IF(AND(NOT(C5<85),NOT(R5<85)NOT(S5<85)),2,0)
    This returns this error message: #ERROR, Formula Parse Error

  16. Hi,

    I wants to apply like if i will update A1 as Apple, B1 suppose to show Red automatically, how to do that
    please explain.

  17. I have a spreadsheet for work where I have figures based on where our console is for the morning and then the afternoon so we can check the difference in numbers which is spread across 3 sheets named - AM, PM, DIFFERENCE.

    I am looking to format this so that is there is a difference in the numbers then the cell would either change colour or show a symbol.

    I would need it so that if we have a number in the morning, for example 10, and at the end of the day it showed 15 it would need to turn red or have a symbol to say the figure increased?

    Any help would be greatly appreciated!

  18. Hi,

    I was wondering whether there is a way in which you can change a cell value according to the fill of that cell or of other cells. For example, if I have A2 filled with red, I want to write inside of it the word "DENIED" and if I put green, I would like to write "GRANTED". Thank you in advance!

  19. Hi

    I have a problem. i like to link one cell to another in the same format.

    I'm Bold & Italic. I'm with under line Bold is Bold & Italic is Italic.

    i try many formulas but its not working.

    can you help me.

  20. In spreadsheet, I need to link two cells

    For example, If I click on a1 then c1 cell automatically get highlighted.

    It is possible is google spreadsheet?

    If yes means, How to do that?

  21. how do i highlight (change background color) for a row in multiple tables based on a cell having similar values?

    for ex if i have multiple tables measuring the performance of tv channels and i want to highlight certain channels in different market tables..how can i do it..
    was trying conditional formatting but not getting the answer

    (all the tables are in the same page/sheet)

  22. The conditional formatting based on another cell's value was exactly what I wanted, but it isn't working and I have checked all 6 of your troubleshooting items - but still no joy. I have prepared a worksheet to calculate savings for an energy customer based on a particular (user input) value that would determine the rate structure for each client meter. The client has 5 meters, so I have 5 sections to calculate their potential savings under different input scenarios. There are 3 potential rate structures for each meter and the savings from their (current) rate structure will depend upon the transformer capacity chosen. I want to be able to highlight the actual savings calculation lines for each meter based on the rate structure elected by the transformer capacity chosen. If the capacity chosen is 100% of the transformer capacity, then the rate qualifier is zero and there is no rate change. I would not have any lines highlighted. If the capacity chosen is 50-99% of the transformer capacity, then the rate qualifier is 1 and there would be cost changes/potential savings associated with the new rates. I would want the appropriate lines associated with the calculations for rate 1 to be highlighted if the rate qualifier were 1, but NOT highlighted for any other value. Similarly, if the capacity were less than 50% of the transformer capacity, the rate qualifier would calculate as a 2 and the cost/potential savings lines associated with the 2nd rate structure would calculate and I would want them to be highlighted - but not highlighted for any other value than 2. So far I have been unsuccessful in getting the conditional highlighting to work. In manage rules, I used an absolute cell address for my reference cell to check the value and the cells to be highlighted were correct, but still no highlighting. What else could be wrong? I don't need the highlighting for myself, but I am giving this workbook to my boss, who won't know how it is built and will need the highlighting to help him understand how the workbook is calculating when he makes input changes to the transformer values. Thanks for any help you can give!

  23. Just to clarify on my last comment....

    I cant use the option to highlight dates between a certain range as i need the dates and highlighting to be relative to todays date. so if i chose to use a "between" formula i would have to change the date range daily which defeats the object

  24. Good Day

    Please may you assist. I am working on a call report and i need my formulas to produce the following two results:

    1) Highlight all dates prior to 30 days from today in RED BOLD
    Highlight all dates prior to 15 days from today in PURPLE BOLD
    Highlight all dates in the last 14 days NORMAL BLACK

    2)Highlight all dates which fall 2 weeks from today in PURPLE BOLD
    Highlight all dates which fall one week from today in RED BOLD
    highlight all dates which fall on future dates in BLACK BOLD WITH RED BACKGROUND

    I've worked out the formulas for one of the above but i cant get them to work together simultaneously without affecting eachother. so in other words problem (1) will be applicable to one column so i need all those formulas to work together and not affect eachother.... i cant seem to get excel to give preference to the formulas with the lowest date, it seems to be working on the 30days first, then the 15 and then the 7 so my 7 days will not highlight because it is already highlighted from the formula of 30 days.

    PLEASE ASSIST - THIS IS BOGGLING MY BRAIN

  25. I need to highlight a cell if:
    it contains a specific text
    AND
    it is not duplicated in the same column

    Thank you

  26. Hello

    I need a formula for the following:

    Cell A2 returns a result of 16, I need to classify this result into one of 6 groups

    if A2 90, I want cell B2 to display GROUP 1

    Thanks very much

    T

  27. I need to set a whole column of information not to be lesser than $X, if it's lesser than the amount it should just show 0. What should I do?

    So, this is a straight line depreciation project and I need to divide my depreciation expense in half for the first year and the disposal/last year. However, the problem is that we do not know when would the disposal/last year be, it might vary from year 3-20. How should I put it in excel?

  28. Hi,

    I am not sure how to make this work, but I figured I would ask if this is possible.

    Let's say I created a list of items
    for example

    In Column A I have a drop down list
    Broom
    Mop
    Dustpan

    and in column b (or whatever column)
    I want it to automatically post the price on whatever I selected in column A

    So for example
    lets say the prices are;

    Broom -- $5.00
    Mop -- $10.50
    Dustpan -- $3.50

    if i go to a new line, and click mop I want it to autopopulate in column B as $10.50

    Does that make sense?

    thanks,
    Aysheh

  29. I have an issue with letters:

    Column V Column W
    01/01/2016 Y
    01/02/2016 Y
    01/02/2016 N

    I need column V to be highlighted red if there is an "N" in column W and if the date has passed today's date

    I also need column V to highlight Orange if there is an "N" in column W and the date is within 2 weeks before today's date

    Is this possible?

    Thank you

    1. Hi Martha,

      You need to create 2 conditional formats for column V using formulas.
      Please use the following formula for the red color:
      =AND(DAYS(TODAY(),$V24)>=0,DAYS(TODAY(),$V24)14,$W24="N")

  30. Hi guys. I am trying to have a different number in one columns depending on how big the amount is in the other columns. so use 0.002635 if other column is >100mill, use 0.002531 if other column is >200mill. The following formula is not working:

    =IF(H5>=0,"0.002635",IF(H5>=200000000,"0.002531",IF(H5>=300000000,"0.001879",IF(H5>=400000000,"0.001545","0"))))

    Can you please help?

    1. Hi Agata,

      Please try this formula:
      =IF(H5>=400000000,"0.001545",IF(H5>=300000000,"0.001879",IF(H5>=200000000,"0.002531",IF(H5>=0,"0.002635","0"))))

  31. Hi!

    I'm trying and if formula that if there is a date in a cell will return the date, and if not then leaves cell blank.

    =if(number(a1),"a1"," ")

    The problem I have is this formula works in a few cells and not on most of them.

    What could be the reason? and if there is a better formula I could try I'll be happy to give it a go.

    Cheers

    1. Hi Daniela,

      Try this formula:
      =IF(ISNUMBER(A1), A1, "")

      Please note, in Excel formulas, cell addresses should not be enclosed in quotation marks, otherwise Excel will treat them as text strings, and return the characters "a1" instead of the value in cell A1.

  32. This is so helpful and save me lots of time to format the cells by the requested color. Thanks a lot!!!

  33. My row 35 has a set of 'expected' values.
    My row 36 has a set of 'actual' values.
    I want each 'actual' value in row 36 to be RED if it does not match the corresponding 'expected' value in row 35. All the examples I see would color row 35 instead of row 36.

    This was trivially easy with older versions of Excel: you just SET the conditional format spec on the target. But it is difficult in Excel 2010 where you have to define a rule, then apply that rule to cells.

  34. I am inputting a date in a cell and I would like the date to start off in green, then after 240 days, it automatically turns yellow, then after 320 days, it turns red..how do I do this? Thanks!

    1. It's unusual that you wouldn't compare it to a starting date placed in another cell but as you've spelled it out you would need to place the literal starting date into the Conditional Format formula itself. You need to set up two "Greater than or equal to" conditions. The first will be for the Red condition after 320 days. You would set it up with the formula "="9/20/2016"+320" (yes, you need the quotes around the literal date you need). Make the format background Fill the Red you desire. The second conditional format will be for the Yellow. If you do Yellow first (above the Red condition in the Conditional Format list) once you pass 240 days the cell will forever be Yellow and NEVER turn Red because the first condition to be met sets the format. You can reorder the list using the up and down arrows on the Conditional Formatting Rules Manager to test what I mean. The formula for Yellow would be something like "="9/20/2016"+240" and set the background Fill to Yellow.

  35. Hi,

    I would like to know how will I arrange the names in Last Name/First Name/Middle name in another cell.

    For example:

    Cell A1= Shannon
    Cell B1= Smith
    Cell C1= McKinley

    Cell D1 should appear as: McKinley, Shannon Smith

    Thanks in advance!

    Mary

    1. Place the formula =CONCATENATE(C1 & ", " & A1 & " " & B1) in cell D1. This will put all the strings in the cells together in the right order with the literal strings inside the quotes for the commas and spaces in between.

  36. I'm trying to have cell A1 read "Yes", if the contents of cells A2, A3, A4 and A5 all read "Yes". Now I can get cell A1 to go green when they all read "Yes", but not get A1 to simply read "Yes".

    I realise I may be wildly overcomplicating things or just missing something very obvious, so any help you could give would be greatly appreciated.

    Thank you.

  37. I am trying to create a checklist, once the task has been completed and a date is entered I would like the cell to highlight Green, but hold that date as completed. I have reviewed the conditional formatting but it only holds for 3-4 days, I have checked the box to stop if true, but is not working...any suggestions to get this work or ways to set up sheet.

  38. I have data in Spreadsheet A that is LINKED data from Spreadsheet B. I would like to conditional format the data now "in" A. For example if the cell display's empty I would like to fill the back ground with lets say orange.
    Since the cell is not actually empty but contains the linked reference information I believe this is keeping it from highlighting the cell as empty even though it is empty in Spreadsheet B
    Thanks

  39. Hi, I am trying to apply a conditional format to a table of data based on two rules, the first to check that a piece of data matches another (not any data in the group to be formatted) and the second to check that any values in the group of data are >10.
    I have a 3x33 table of data and I only want the single cell to highlight if it is <10 (and the previous first rules two fields match).
    The match rule works fine but I can't work out how to get the formula to check all cells (if they are <10) and only highlight those that are <10.I seem to be stuck with all highlighted based on one result or nothing.

    1. Hello Louise,

      It will make things a lot easier if we could see your dataset and rules. If you can send us your sample worksheet (support@ablebits.com) with the source data and expected results, we will try to help.

  40. I am trying to correlate between a colored cell and a value cell. need cell L2 to show the Value of Cell D2-D50 if the Color of cell E2-E50 is green and the Value of Cell L3 to show the Value of Cell D2-D50 is the color of cell E2-E50 is Blue basically need one cell to show the number next to the green cells all added together and the number next to the blue cells all added together.

  41. Hi Everyone

    I need help on something. (Excel 2010)

    I need to place into a formula this: If the text in any of my active Cells which are Cell A2 all the way to Cell A4000 is exactly the same as the text that is typed into Cell A1, then the Active Cell that have the same text will shade RED.

    I can do this for an individual active cell through conditional formatting no problem using the formula =$A$1=$A$2 but as soon as I do =$A$1=$A$2:$A$4000 it doesn't work.

    Please help, what am I missing in this formula?

  42. I have 02 G:8 and J:8 cell with text G:8="Moderate" and J8= Panding both have drope down list under G8 I have another option "Not Accaptable"

    I want to get out put in J8 Pending if the text in G8 is moderate or Not accaptable otherwise completed.

    I am using =IF(AND(G8="Moderate"),"Pending","Completed") but it is getting only one text.

    Thanks

    1. You only have one conditional test and that's IF G8="Moderate". If it is your Boolean result is TRUE and the output will be "Pending". The FALSE result for anything other than "Moderate" in G8 will return the value "Completed". It seems like you want an IF/OR test. Your syntax would be "=IF(OR(G8="Moderate", G8="Not acceptable"), "Pending", "Completed")". If G8 is either "Moderate" or "Not acceptable", the result will be "Pending", otherwise the resulting output will be "Completed".

  43. i want to highlight red if A20 is greater than A2 but the cells contain dates.. not numbers

    1. Dates are just "serial numbers" started at 1/1/1900 so that date is "1", 1/2/1900 is "2", and so on until today (2/14/2019) is 43,510 (i.e. the 43,510th day since 12/31/1899). To illustrate, type the numeral "1" into a cell and then change the format to "Date" and you'll see what I mean. Likewise, type "Today()" into a cell which is the function to enter the current day's date and then change the format to "Number" and you'll see the opposite happen. Now that we've gone over that...dates are just numbers. So it's still just a numerical comparison so the same logical operators you learned in basic math apply: >, =, <=, (from l-r greater than, less than, greater than or equal to, less than or equal to, not equal to). I'm not sure from your question if you want to turn Red cell A20 or cell A2. Assuming for explanation's sake you want to turn A20 Red if it is greater than A2, select cell A20 and then Conditional Formatting > Highlight Cells Rules > Greater Than. In the dialog box that pops up for the left box select the cell A2 either by overwriting the entry with "A2", clicking back on your spreadsheet and selecting cell "A2", or by selecting the range selector at the right-hand side of the text box and selecting "A2". The right box of the dialog for Red you'll need to select Custom Format in the drop down menu and use the Fill tab to select the Red you so desire. Otherwise, there are some default options, one of which is a light red with red text. If you don't mind the default options for your purposes it can be handier than selecting a custom format every time.

  44. The information here is great, so many questions and answers I am hoping this isn't a duplicate question.

    I have a spreadsheet in which if C43, J34 and J46 equal each other highlight the cell in green, if they don't highlight the cell in red.

    not sure how to use the conditional formatting on this....thanks in advance for any help you can give me

    1. Format the 3 cells Red to start with because when the conditional format returns FALSE the Red will just be uncovered (i.e. they won't be Green). Then set up your conditional format to be "=AND($C$43=$J$34, $C$43=$J$46)" with a format of Green. Make sure the conditional format applies to "C43, J34, J46" separated by commas.

  45. Please, what is the actual formular to use such that numbers in a table less than 10000 be highlighted and greater than 10000 be highlighted with a different colour

    1. Hi, just use the conditional formatting tool, it has greater and less than all set up and you just input your value and range.

  46. OK, I put this formula in the conditional formatting:
    =VALUE(E7)=VALUE((OFFSET($J$7,(E7*8),0)-1))

    Now, the column E has values in sets of 8. Column J has "control" data which is numbered from 1 to 100 is also in sets of 8 but lots more than column E has data. E7 has a number from 1 to 90 starting in row 7 and every 8th row has a number incremented from above.

    So, I want to format cell e7 with green background IF it can find at cell location of the contents of e7 times 8. Not sure how to do that.

    Any ideas?

  47. Madam / Sir,

    I want to learn Macro's in excel using Visual Basic & Microsoft Access.

    Kindly give the suggestion and give hints and notes for my mail ID

    My phone no. 91- 8939214538

    INDIA

    Vandhee Madaram

  48. Hi,

    I need your help in order to conditional format some cells based on the following example :

    If in cell A7 I have the value 03-Aug-2016 (as a date), then the following cells must be filled as this : cell T7 to be green if the cell A7 is 24 hours due , cell U7 to be yellow if the cell A7 is 14 days due and cell V7 to be red if the cell A7 is 30 days due (A7+24 hours = T7 turns green and so on..).

    Can you help me please ?
    Thank you in advance.

    Can someone help me with this, please?

    Thank you in advance!

  49. Hi can you possibly help ?
    I am struggling - thats an understatement.

    I'm looking to highlight maximum and next maximum figure in a col when another col has a figure greater than 4.

    (col A had set of figures greater and less than 4 whilst col B has set of figures that maximum 2 need to be highlighted )

    thanks - much appreciated

    Alex

  50. Hi Svetlana,

    I have some data in a spreadsheet across a number of rows and columns that details absence. This is recorded as either A or AA depending on if the absence is authorised or not. I want to be able to conditionally format the totals column at the end of the sheet to highlight a cell when there are 2 consecutive columns in that row with an A or AA in them.

    I thought I had it with this: =OR(AND(B8="A*",C8="A*"),AND(C8="A*",D8="A*"),AND(D8="A*",E8="A*"),AND(E8="A*",F8="A*"),AND(F8="A*",G8="A*"),AND(G8="A*",H8="A*"),AND(H8="A*",I8="A*"))

    but it doesn't work. I now know that this is because the wildcards don't work in the conditional formatting formula but I don't know how to fix it. Help!

    Thanks,

    Anna

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