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 25. Total comments: 1727

  1. 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)

  2. 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!

  3. 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

  4. 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

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

    Thank you

  6. 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

  7. 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?

  8. 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

  9. 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")

  10. 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"))))

  11. 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.

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

  13. 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.

  14. 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.

  15. 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.

  16. 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.

  17. 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.

  18. 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

  19. 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.

  20. 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.

  21. 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?

  22. 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".

  23. 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.

  24. 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.

  25. 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.

  26. 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?

  27. 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

  28. 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!

  29. 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

  30. 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

  31. Hello Mam,
    How we sum of these coloumn in z1 (A1, C1, E1, G1,...........x1) in coloumn of Z1

  32. dear mam, your blog is excellent!
    i've to create a formula for a condition;
    i've a column A in sheet 1 of students name with adjacent column B with students admission no. of year 2015, again i've a column A in sheet 2 with students name admitted in year 2016 with adjacent column with students admission no.i want to highlight the student name entered in sheet 2 if it is admitted in previous year, with his/her admission no. in adjacent column automatically. by conditional formating with formula =countif()>1 i've done it but i cannot entered automatically admission no.
    plz give the complete solution. thank you!

  33. Hi Svetlana,

    I was wondering if I could use this function to highlight in yellow a range of cells based on a customer number?

    Thanks in advance for your help!
    Jim

    1. Hi Jim,

      Sure, you can. If you explain the task in more detail, I may be able to suggest an appropriate formula.

  34. I am having difficulty conditionally formatting a cell that has to meet several conditions. First the column name (ID number) has to match 1 of 5 other cells and second the formula in the cell has yielded an "X".

    I have tried numerous conditional format formulas but have not found the one that works. The formula the subject cell calculates to display either an "X" or " ". I need to highlight the "X" if the column ID number matches one of five other cells.

  35. Hi I am trying to design a sheet, that in say sheet1 has names of customers and in the second column a list of their purchases, so in sheet 2 when their name is typed it will bring up their purchase (if you know what I mean)

  36. Hi, I am trying to design a sheet where in another sheet(sheet 1) there will be a list of all persons names and in another column a list of they purchase, so on a new sheet(sheet 2) when a persons name is entered in a box their purchase is shown beside it

  37. Hello,
    I'm trying to auto-highlight a spreadsheet. Column A is the Company Name, B is Invoice #, C is Amount, D is Due Date, and E is Date Paid. I'm using the following rules already:
    Highlight Red if past due: =NOW()
    Highlight Yellow if due within 7 days: =NOW()+7
    Leave blank if no value in Due Date: =ISBLANK(A1)=TRUE

    I need to know the formula to highlight the entire row GREEN if a date is entered in Column E.

    Thanks!
    Jenny

    1. Solved it!

      I created a new column that "Paid?" and used this formula so when you enter "Yes" in the paid column it highlights the entire row green.

      =$E1="YES"

    2. Oh, the formulas that I'm already using are highlight column D only.

  38. How do I create conditional formatting that calls out if a cell value is less than either the cell above or the cell to the left? Example is below - cell D4 is less than D3 and C4.

    A B C D
    1 31.60 33.35 36.00 38.55
    2 32.75 32.80 37.80 40.55
    3 33.90 36.10 39.60 42.45
    4 34.60 36.85 40.65 40.35
    5 35.55 38.10 42.10 45.05

  39. Dear mam, how to color the new entry data by not showing the data. For example. You will enter "1" in the cell, if you enter one activity but instead of "1" appears, that cell data will be blank colored.

  40. Hello,

    I want to relate one cell to Another for example in cell B4 i have two Options Currencies like USD and AED now in the next cell B5 when i enter an amount it should be related with B4 if USD is selected than the format for that cell should be $ and when AED is selected in B4 than automatically B5 format should be for AED. Please help me with giving proper formula

  41. Hello,
    I inherited a spreadsheet worth of 10+ years of data, but someone got into it and messed with it, so now the condition not working properly any more. I'm a newbie to conditional formatting, I need help to fix it, please!
    It's a big file, contains thousands of row and dozens of column. And here is what I need:

    if any cell in column K contain a specific text "WAT", then in that same row, cell B, C, G, and K will be fill with color. How do I format this? thank you in advance!!

  42. Hi ,

    Is there any formula for this question below :

    cell 1 will have month of feb 2016 entered

    cell 2 will have month march 2016 entered

    cell 3 will have month dec 2015 entered

    is it able to cross check within 3 cells whether the date in each cells is consecutively 3 months based on the dates if not need to appear the cells in red colour .

  43. Need to cover a row with hash marks to blank it out when wrong part number is listed. Problem is the following formula works when X is added in one cell but not the other.
    Row A37:F37 is covered by blue hashes if X is in A7 and C12 = TT60000678-
    Part number in C12 is entered by formula when X is put in A7
    To change part number in C12 requires an X in D22 or E22. Formula for this is in C12 .
    =IF(AND(OR(D22="X",E22="X"),A7="X"), "TT60003571-",IF(AND(A7="X",(E4=293,E4=701,E4=601,E4=731),"TT60002639-", ""))))))

    Conditional Formatting Formula for adding blue hash marks in A37:F37 works fine when X is put in E22.
    It does not work when X is put in D22

    I am using excel 2010. Have had this problem in the past with other formulas/configurations. W
    Have used similar formulas in earlier versions of Excel and did not have this problem.

  44. Hi, Can you help me with this?

    I am preparing a system so staff members can build part numbers based on certain questions which I have embedded into "drop down lists".

    My issue is that I have two questions which require a different drop down list to appear based on the answer of the previous question.

    Example question 1, please chose C or SS.

    Question 2
    Please choose size.

    If they chose "SS" on question 1, I want to offer a drop down list with values from 2-10 on question 2
    If they chose "C" on question 1, I want to offer a different drop down list offering values 11-20

    So if Cell C5 = C I want drop down list A
    If cell C5 = SS I want drop down list B

    Is this possible?

    Many thanks,

    Kyle

  45. Hello Svetlana, I have a worksheet there are many columns like column A, B,C,D etc. Column A have Product ID, Column B have Product Description C got 1 date of month D got 2 date of month as on and last column got closing stock. i got values from some columns in this worksheet from another worksheet using formula. but the problem is that on a specific date it got values for that dates columns and rest all columns got 0 value. I want when a column got values from formula is got paste special at a specific time (11 am) automatically, so that on next day when the current day's value updated on respective column last days value did not change.

    could you help me on this.

    Thanks

  46. I am trying to apply conditional formatting based on the value in other cell. Condition is if column J has specific text (from the list) row to be highlighted yellow. If columns K, L, M, N have any text, then row should have not color. I am able to format this based on the numbers in columns K, L, M, N not the text. Please help.

  47. I have two columns, F and H. I put a 1 in F if the application is approved and the H column equals the number of times an application has been submitted by someone. in column H, i want the cell to highlight green when the application is approved on the first attempt (f=1 and h=1). When applying the conditional formatting, I can get it to work if I set it up for a single cell ie =and(h5=1, f5=1) and applies to $h$5 but I want to apply this formatting to the entire H Column. If I change the formulat to =and(h:h=1, F;F=1) and apply it to =$h$h, no cells are highlighted. Can you help me tweak my formula to do this?

  48. Hi i want to know when i want a cell to be yellow when another cell has no data but then if i add data to that cell then the yellow should then go back to no fill.

    How do i do that

  49. How to highlight calendar cells

    based on start,estimated & actual date in excel

    I tried using the below formula but it doesnt work

    If =(F$4<$B5), no format (or white fill), Stop If True
    If =AND(F$4<=$C5, F$4<=$D5), fill blue
    If =AND(F$4$D5), fill green
    If =AND(F$4>$C5, F$4<=$D5), fill red

  50. Hi, any help is greatly appreciated:

    I am trying to use conditional formatting to apply to individual cells across a row based on each of their values, relative to one value in another (Absolute) cell. Data is corresponding in 2-row sets...

    Specific example:
    A1=10
    B2=12, C2=11, D2=9
    A3= 20
    B4=21, C4=20, D4=19

    I want to create a conditional formatting formula that is something like this:
    Format IF: =$A1>B$2.
    I want B2, C2, D2, etc. to be evaluated compared to $A$1, and be highlighted individually (not row 2, just the individual cell), and ONLY if A1 is greater than the value in the cell. I want B4,c4,d4... to ref $A3, and so on down the sheet. (Note: it's ok if b3 references a2 in between, because all Even numbered cells in column A = 0; a2=0,a4=0, etc, therefore b3,c3,d3...which are all positive, would not get formatted, which is good.)

    In the above example, I would want this result:
    D2 and D4 are highlighted/formatted (because they are less than A1 and A3 respectively), and nothing else is formatted.

    I am having trouble figuring out the absolute reference. I also don't want to have to apply it individually to each row - maybe I need to create the formula once and drag it down? (Copy conditional formatting?) because I have hundreds of rows similar to what is shown above.

    (I'm more familiar with google sheets, and this seems much easier to accomplish in gsheets...)

    Thanks again for any help!

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