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 33. Total comments: 1726

  1. I am trying to create a formula for dates and am having a problem. I want to enter a day 1 and the rest of the days populate as needed. I have the rest of the dates formulated so that they populate correctly but I need to figure out how to formulate the day one date in order to make the others follow when I enter day 1. (day 1, day 14, day 21, day 28 and so on). This is a schedule to create dates in the future on specific dates. Like I said I can't get the dates to populate when I enter day 1. Can anyone help?

  2. hi there,
    i have created a condtionl formating in colum A, where it has dates, and it will highlight if day i experied in red, 5 days remining amber and 15days yellow "which works really fine. on next colum i want to have a formula which will help me to remove colours from previous colum (condtional rule) if i just type "OK".

    Can you help me please ?

  3. hi there,
    i have created a condtionl formating in colum A, where it has dates, and it will highlight if day i experied in red, 5 days remining amber and 15days yellow. on next colum i want to have a formula which will help me to remove colours from previous colum if i just type "OK".

    Can you help me please ?

  4. I have highlighted some lower and upper values in my cells using conditional formatting.
    How can i generate a chart with same colors which i highlighted using conditional format?(i want my chart also to automatically show the colors which i used for the cell)

  5. I'm trying to highlight a cell if it contains certain words: ie. if it says "apple or strawberry or orange" filling it in purple. I want to create multiple rules of the same type but using different words, so one set would be one color and the other set another. But I can't even get this to work! I was trying to use the OR function, this is the last formula I tried.

    =OR(strawberry,blueberry,banana,blackberry,orange,apple,raspberry,pineapple,melon)

  6. Hi

    If range of cells (all of cell in selected row) are blank,highlight a row
    using conditional formatting.

    I can highlight a row if a cell is blank but it does not work for range of
    cells blank.

    What I mean is, if any cell of the selected row has any value or text, I do not want to highlight. I only want to hight rows that are blanks (rage of cell).
    Would appreciate your help.
    Name Date Address Invoice No Amount
    Ganesh 1/1/2015 Uttar Pradesh, India 10215 50
    Prem 2/1/2015 Uttar Pradesh, India 10216 1500
    Radhe Since B4:E4="" highlight this row
    Krishna 4/1/2015 Uttar Pradesh, India 10218 300
    Hari 5/1/2015 Uttar Pradesh, India 10219 400
    Shiva Since B7:E7="" highlight this row
    Shanti 7/1/2015 Uttar Pradesh, India 10221 80
    Om Since B9:E9="" highlight this row
    Kiram 9/1/2015 Uttar Pradesh, India 10223 700

  7. Good afternoon,

    I need to change/increment the date in column 2 by 1, 2, or 3 years in column 3 based on the fill color in column 1.

    Name Date Date2
    Name1 January 1, 2014 January 1, 2015
    Name2 January 2, 2014 January 2, 2016
    Name3 January 3, 2014 January 3, 2017

    Thanks in advance

  8. Hi,

    I don't know if anyone will respond to this or not, but I'm working on an excel spreadsheet and have a tricky conditional formatting question.

    I have already formatted column D, but I need help with E. What I am looking to do is this: Column D is the status of a lab, column E is the overall facility status (My four criteria are: lab not being used, lab is down, lab is limited, and lab is up and operational). So, 1=lab is operational, 2=limited, 3=down, and 4=not being used. For column E, I would like to say if the overall facility is operation, limited, down, or not being used. So, if, for example, the labs for one facility (D2-D4) contain at least one status that is down, the facility should also be considered down....and so on and so forth. But, if one of the labs is not being used, but the other two are operational, the facility should be operational.

    Is there a way to do this? I have been trying to figure this out for a couple of hours and have had no luck. It seems like all of the formulas I come up with do not narrow down my criteria enough. I do not know SQL stuff...but any other help will be appreciated! Thanks!

  9. Which formulas or conditional formatting can I use to say that IF value in Column I,L,O,R,U,X is than value in Column AG, make it red?

  10. How do I write the code for a list of variables associated to one colour?

    So I have a list of codes in a single column - efx, mbc, dad, hif and I want to highlight them all in the same colour.

    Does anyone know how I do this?

    Thanks

  11. I want my conditional formatting to search column $E (E8:E250)and if it says "Waived" or "Exempt", $G (G8:G250) is crossed out. This is what I have found so far but can not seem to figure out how to add the "Exempt". Also when doing the formatting of the cell it will not allow me to do a cross border within the cell.

    =ISNUMBER(SEARCH("Waived",E8))=TRUE

  12. Hi,

    I've been searching for ages to get an answer to the following and being a complete novice at excel not having much luck in getting a resolve. Any idea how I can do the following:
    I have a s/s with columns of dates and then rows of chargeable and non-chargeble. In the table data I have hours. I need to highlight any non-chargeable work over 0 in red and then any chargeable work over 30 in blue. Can I do this in 1 go by conditional formatting? Please help :)

    1. Hi Keira,
      According to your description, it is possible. If you can send us your sample workbook to support2ablebits.com, we will try to help you.

      1. Thanks Alex. Is there an email address for the support2ablebits? Thanks again for looking at this.

  13. Hi,
    When using Conditional Formatting:
    In cell U2, I would like to populate a formula in the cell if K2 says "Income"
    I've tried different ways and I can't get it to work. Help?!
    A

    1. Hello ajensen,

      Conditional formatting changes a cell's format, but it cannot change the contents of a cell. Probably, it makes sense to enter the following formula in U2:
      =IF(K2="Income",YOURFORMULA,"")

  14. Hi Svetlana,

    Thx for the great tutorial regarding conditional formatting.
    I am having a specific scenario and struggling to find a solution.

    I have a data sheet that is sorted by column C and then F.
    In my column D, I have dollar values and I need to match the negative ones against the positive ones (but the column C and F values for both negative and positive number must be same) and highlight.

    If you could help me regarding this, it would be great.
    Thx

  15. I'm not sure if you've already answered this; I've gone through the comments twice and none seem to address my particular situation (unless I'm blind... twice over :p ).

    I've created the conditional format:
    Cell Value $g$2 | (format red fill) | =$H$2

    So if the values in H2 and G2 are not the same H2 has a red fill. What I want to do now is do the same for the rest of my cells from H3:G3 on down the column. The only way I've been able to do this so far is to create a rule for each and every cell which gets quite tedious as some of my lists are 50+ items long. Is there a quicker way to just copy that conditional formating where the cells automatically change with each row?

  16. Hi,
    I have a sheet that I want to format.
    Column B,C,D will have numbers entered manually (rows 10-50).
    Column E will be the sum of B+C+D
    Column L will contain a "Y" sometimes.
    Here is what I need to do....
    I know how to set it up to highlight the highest single value in B or C or D.
    And I know how to set it up to highlight the highest value in Column E.
    What I don't know how to do is to NOT include in the conditional formatting, any rows where column L has a "Y".
    Any assistance is greatly appreciated.
    Thank you!

  17. Hello, I’m trying to use Conditional Formatting to Highlight the Header Row cells if any cell in that column is not blank. So I used =ISBLANK(G2:G10000), but when I use the format painter to apply this rule to the adjacent header row cells, the G2:G10000 reference doesn’t change. So, each column header is looking back at G2:G10000. How can I build my Formula so that Conditional Formatting will highlight the Header Row if the cells each column meet the conditions, as I paint the formula across the header? -Thanks, Ron M.

  18. Hi,

    how to set the formula,

    if the sum of certain fields equal to or greater than 1 to show the number 5, and if it is less than 1 to show 0.

  19. i want that if i minus values from two cell the ans i get if less than 0 it should return the value to 0

  20. what is the formula,only one forwarding cell is highlight with color about the calculation of the total amount when it is highlight

  21. Hi,
    I want to apply conditional formatting on cells within a worksheet that start with the same letter. For example, I have H1, H2, ....., H20 as values in my worksheet and I would like to apply a rule that every time the value in a cell starts with "H", the cell is filled in a certain color.
    Can you help me ?
    Thanks,
    Marc

  22. That was Awesome, Thank you

  23. Hello, can you help me with below argument. what formula can i use for this.

    a b c
    4138.6 6 Tonner TRUE
    3188.6 4 Tonner TRUE
    3188.6 6 Tonner FALSE
    4138.6 4 Tonner FALSE

    the argument is (if b=6 tonner and a is greater than 4100 then its true) or (if b=4 tonner and is greater than 3100 then its true.

  24. Hello,

    I am trying to highlight a cell (C9) red if it is between 12 and 100 and if another cell(J9) is blank. also want C9 to turn green if it has the same number range but when J9 has "C/W" in there. I know I need to separate formats, but everything I've tried turns the cell green when the blank is there.

    thank you

  25. Hello,

    I have a string of numbers:
    4 3 8 9 4 6 6 10 6 15 1

    I want to higlight each case:
    1. in red(for example, or put an lower red arrow) if the number in the next case is lower than the previous,
    2. in green(for example, or an upper green arrow) if the number in the next case is bigger and
    3. in orange(or square orange arrow) if the number in the next case is equal with the previous.

    Thank you.

  26. Hello,
    I have the following formula and it keeps producing following error: "#NAME"

    =IF(OR(F6=YES, G6=YES, H6=YES), "At Store","Not at Store")

    What am I doing wrong? The same formula works if i replace "YES" with "10 or 20 or 30".

    Thank you so much.

    1. Hi Sarah,

      All text in a formula should be enclosed in double quote marks. Your formula needs to read as follows:

      =IF(OR(F6="YES", G6="YES", H6="YES"), "At Store","Not at Store")

      1. Thank you so much. This is great!!!!

        As a follow up here is my major issue. How do I add this formula to an if, iserror, index formula? I keep getting an error.

        Working Formula:
        =IF(ISERROR(INDEX($B$2:$C$41,SMALL(IF($B$2:$B$41=E3,ROW($B$2:$B$41)),COLUMN($A$2:$A$501)),2)),"",INDEX($B$2:$C$41,SMALL(IF($B$2:$B$41=E3,ROW($B$2:$B$41)),COLUMN($A$2:

        Non-Working Formula:
        =IF(OR(F3="Yes", G3="Yes", H3="Yes"), "Available", "Not Available", ISERROR(INDEX($B$2:$C$41,SMALL(IF($B$2:$B$41=E3,ROW($B$2:$B$41)),COLUMN($B$2:$B$5000)),2)),"",INDEX($B$2:$C$41,SMALL(IF($B$2:$B$41=E3,ROW($B$2:$B$41)),COLUMN($B$2:$B$5000)),2)))

        Am I adding to incorrect location?

  27. ok,

    i was hopping i would find the answer on the page but i haven't so her goes...
    what i want is for example in b7= if(b6>b5)=a3 however if (b6<b5)=a2
    i cannot figure out how to do this, it needs to be that if the value of cell b6 is greater than cell b5 i get the result as cell a3 however ig cell b6 is less than cell b5 the result is cell a2. how do i do this? (keeping a running tally on a competition and want cell b7 to prepopulate for the winner on any given day)

    1. Hi Shantal,

      You don't need conditional formatting for this. Simply enter the following formula in B7:

      =IF(B6>B5, A3, IF(B6<B5, A2, ""))

      Please keep in mind that if B6=B5, the formula will return an empty string (blank cell).

  28. Hi

    i would like to know if it is possible to format a cell depending from other cell, my case is as follows.

    i´m doing a vlookup from severals values but in some cases the values are percentages and other integers, in that cases a need to change the format to % or $ so i need the values keeps there format after the retrieve from the vlookup.

    thanks

  29. Hi Svetlana,

    I need to conditional format cells based on a changing value.

    B20 contains a percentage that changes each day (30%, 35%, 40%, etc).
    I want cells G23:G37 to conditional format if they are equal to value in B20, within 5% of B20, above B20, and below B20.

    Do I need a separate rule for each set of criteria I have or can I combine into one formula line?

    1. Hi Dillon,

      You will need a separate rule for each criteria because you would want to use different colors, right?

      And you can create the rules based on the following formulas:

      Equal to value in B20: =$G23=$B$20

      Within 5% of B20: =ABS(($G23-$B$20)/$B$20)>5%

      Above B20:=$G23>$B$20

      Below B20:=$G23<$B$20

  30. Hi,

    I want to get greatest value among two cells to be in new cell how do I do that.

    Regards,
    Ahmed

    1. Hi Ahmed,

      You can use a formula similar to this:
      =MAX(A1,A2)

      1. Thanks a lot.

  31. The following formula looks correct to me, but only affects the first cell in the range. I'm trying to change the fill color in cells B through M of a given row when cell D of that row contains a particular text string. Using row 23 as an example:

    Rule =D23="TEST"
    Format (pick a fill color)
    Applies to =$B$23:$M$23

    When I type TEST into cell D, only cell B changes fill color. I've tried this with and without "Stop If True" and both with and without dollar signs in all combinations. I can change any single cell on the worksheet, but putting in a range only affects the first cell.

    Thanks very much for any insight you can provide! :)

  32. Hi
    I am having a hard time getting some conditional formatting to work, maybe you can help..??
    I have a spreadsheet with columns of data
    What I want to do is apply a rule to a column that will highlight the cell of a manually entered figure orange, and leave the cells that contain a formula with an unaltered format.
    thanks in advance
    :-)!

    1. Hi Rick,

      To leave the cells with formula blank, create a rule with the ISFORMULA function (no background or fill color is selected for this rule) and make sure it comes first in the list of rules, e.g. =ISFORMULA($A1)

      To highlight the numbers entered manually with orange, you can create a rule with the formula like =ISNUMBER($A1)

      To highlight all cells with values other than formulas, use the formula like =AND(ISFORMULA($A1)=FALSE, $A1<>"") The non-format rule with the ISFORMULA function is not needed in this case.

    2. Hi Rick,

      To leave the cells with formula blank, create a rule with the ISFORMULA function (no background or fill color is selected for this rule) and make sure it comes first in the list of rules, e.g. =ISFORMULA($A1)

      To highlight the numbers entered manually with orange, you can create a rule with the formula like =ISNUMBER($A1)

      To highlight

  33. How can I create a condition for a spreadsheet in which column A will tell me which cell on that row has a value of $0.00? Not a blank value but the actual value of $0.00.

    1. Hi Nikki,

      Select the entire column A and create a rule with the following formula:

      =AND($A1=0, $A1<>"")

  34. I have a date in my one cell and I want to highlight the another cell only if the date in particular month and also I want to count if my color code change from above condition.
    please help....

    1. Hi PRATIK,

      To highlight one cell if another falls withing a certain month, you can create a rule with the following formula:

      =MONTH($A2)=1

      Where A2 is the top-most cell in the dates column and 1 is the month (Jan in this example).

  35. One revision to the document that I believe would be helpful is to explain the relationship between the "Applies to" range and the row number to use in a formula.

    For example, if you had selected $A$2:$E$8 then the first row of the range is 2 and your formula should reference cells in row 2 such as $A2, $C2, etc. If you use a row number other than 2 then your formula will be relative to the row it's running on. For example, using $C1 in a formula will reference the value from column C in the previous row and using $C3 will reference the value from column C in the row below the row for the cell the formula is being evaluated on.

    The columns are also relative which is why we always use $C2 and not C2 without the leading $. If you were to use C2 in a formula then the excel will fetch data from a cell that both column and row relative to the cell that it's evaluating the formula on. The relative distance is based on the column and row of the upper-left cell in the applies-to range.

    Related to this is if while writing a formula you click on cell C2 then Excel inserts the address in your formula as $C$2. This means Excel will always reference cell C2 regardless of what cell it's evaluating when processing condition formulas.

    Once you understand how this works then can take advantage of it by having the formatting of a range of cells controlled by one of:
    * A single cell ($C$2).
    * Cells in a fixed column relative to the current row ($C2).
    * Cells in a fixed row relative to the current column (C$2).
    * Cells in columns and rows both relative to the current cell (C2).

  36. I am currently having an issue with a format. I have column G (cells 4-20) that have a name populated. I am querying a rotating list of names that populate in column L (typically go down to row 60 or farther). If even one of the names from column G populate in a single row of column L, I would like that row (using L2 as an example) A2:M2 to be highlighted blue.

    This has been truly frustrating. Please tell me if there is a fix.

  37. Hi Svetlana

    I have 1 empty colum with fill by any color but when i put anything the color will be disappear, please help me to solve the problem.

  38. Hi Svetlana

    I have a large data set in a single column that I want to apply conditional formatting to.

    Data in cells A1 and A2 are duplicates, A3 and A4 are duplicates and so on...
    I want to format cells were one member of the duplicate differs from the other by more than 1 or less than -1.

    This formula: =OR(SUM(A1-A2)>=1,SUM(A1-A2)<=-1) works. But if i use it in conditional formatting on the entire column it pairs [A1 with A2] then [A2 with A3] and [A3 with A4] and so on... Giving me analysis between cells which are not duplicates.

    I want the formula to be applied only to 'every other' row?
    Can you help? Thanks in advance.

  39. Hello,
    I need to conditional format cells based on a changing value.

    B20 contains a percentage that changes each day (30%, 35%, 40%, etc).
    I want cells G23:G37 to conditional format if they are equal to value in B20, within 5% of B20, above B20, and below B20.

    Do I need a separate rule for each set of criteria I have or can I combine into one formula line?

  40. Hi
    I am having a hard time getting some conditional formatting to work, maybe you can help..??
    I have a spreadsheet with columns of data
    What I want to do is apply a rule to a column, or various columns, that will highlight the cell of a a manually entered figure orange, and leave the cells that contain a formula unaltered.
    thanks in advance

  41. hye, I want to ask about how to highlight green for passed and red for failed based on another cell result? mind if you can show me the way? thankyou

    1. Hi Husna,

      Simply select the column(s) you want to highlight and create a rule with the formula that references another cells. For example:

      Green: =$A2="passed"
      Red: =$A2="failed"

  42. Hi Svetlana

    I would like to highlight cells in a column where the corresponding cells in an adjacent row return a formula error (#N/A). Can this be done with conditional formatting?

    Thank you.
    Ruth

    1. Hi Ruth,

      You can create a rule with a formula similar to =ISNA($A2) where A2 is first row with data in the column that contains #N/A errors.

  43. Hi !
    How can I creat a conditional formating with a formula I have in a cell of another sheet of the same document? or How can I use the same formula that for conditional formating in another part of the document?

    Thank you
    Mary

  44. Dear Madam,

    I am preparing a attendance sheet but I have some confusion with this sheet because I want if a personnel make holiday at Saturday and Monday to I can acquire 3 absent but I design sheet with A for absent and P for Present to that is why I have to face problem I am continuously thinking and applying but still I am unable to get rid of this hindrance kindly help me out.

    many thanks.

  45. i have a sheet with a matrix of users and whether they have access to a security role (roles are columns, names are rows, values are Yes/No). I want to use conditional formatting to compare this to a matrix of classes and highlight where the user's roles differ from the class they are assigned to. is this possible? i tried using a vlookup formula in a rule, and it didn't seem to work. Any thoughts?

  46. i have a sheet with a matrix of users and whether they have access to a security role (roles are columns, names are rows, values are Yes/No). I want to use conditional formatting to compare this to a matrix of classes and highlight where the user's roles differ from the class they are assigned to. is this possible? i tried using a vlookup formula in a rule, and it didn't seem to work. Any thoughts?

  47. Sorry to bother you, but have been trying to get this to work for ages. I have what will eventually be a large table of data. Column A is a word and B to O are a mix of numbers and words.
    I need the following to make the cell in column A to be filled say, green if certain criteria are met, orange if others and red if others.
    I can't even get the green section to work. This is what I have so far:

    I highlight either A2 or B2 to O2 (it doesn't seem to matter what I highlight, nothing works)then enter this:
    =and(D2<20, E2<55, F2<50, G2=Low, h2=Nil, j2<15, k2<20, m2<100, 0270 for red, G2 = high for red etc.
    If it's impossible to have the other two colours working in conjunction that's fine, even having the green working will be a great help.

    Thanks in advance if you can get to it,
    regards Liz

  48. How to use text formula in conditional format

    ex:7/25/2015
    7/26/2015
    7/27/2015
    7/28/2015
    7/29/2015
    7/30/2015
    on the above date i want to highlight saturday and sunday by using text(a2,"dddd") with conditional foramt, pls helm me.

    Thank in advance
    Chandra shekhar

  49. Hello-

    I have read through all of the questions on this page and didn’t see this specific question asked. I would greatly appreciate your assistance!

    I have an excel worksheet- starting in column and row D6 (start date), E6 (End date), and F6 (Frequency). Across the rows at the top we have weeks starting in column and row G4, H4, I4, etc = (July 13, July 20, July 27), etc.

    My first conditional format- to color in the weeks where a communication was sent, worked. That formula was: =AND(G$4$D6) and it applied to: =$G$6:$AM$38

    This worked well for the rows with the frequency of daily or weekly. Where we are struggling with is conditionally formatting rows to fill cells with monthly repetition.

    Currently, the formula I have: =AND(G$4$D7) is for a specific row i.e. applies to: =$G$7:$AN$7 and this highlights the specific cell that corresponds to the week of the first date that the communication was sent out.

    My first question:

    1) How do I create a specific conditional formatting rule using the =AND(G$4$D7) formula that fills in a cell every 30 days or 1 month and also corresponds to the correct week, leaves the remainder of the cells blank for that row, and that also ends when the end date in column E says? Will I have to have 2 separate formulas for each row with a monthly frequency? One for filling in the cells, the other for shading the remainder blank? Also, I should be able to specify in one rule that the formula applies to row 7, 10, 15, 22 for example in the “Applies to” section without having to make a new rule for each row, correct?
    2) What is the order in the rules manager that these rules should be placed? Should the original formula for all cells be placed at the top or bottom?

    Thank you in advance for the help.

  50. Using conditional formatting to highlight calender dates.
    Currently if I receive a document on the 1st July, I have to contractually respond within 10 working days. I am using an Icon set to say Green when plenty of time changing to red 3 days before I have to reply.
    My problem is once I reply (the date is recorded in another column) I want the Traffic lights to disappear complete. HOW can I do this????

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