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Note: Excel contains many built-in "presets" for highlighting values with conditional formatting, including a preset to highlight cells that equal a specific value. However, for more flexibility, you can use your own formula, as explained in this article.

If you want to...Read more

In this example, the goal is to highlight rows in the data shown when the date is a specific day of week. The target day of week is a variable selected with a dropdown menu in cell F5, which contains abbreviated day names. This problem can be easily solved by applying conditional formatting...Read more

In the example shown, row 5 is a header row and which contains a series of valid dates, formatted with the custom number format "d". With a static date in D5, you can use this formula in E5 (copied across) to populate the calendar header in row 5:...Read more

Note: this is a great example of a formula that is hard to understand because the cell references are hard to interpret. The gist of the logic used is this: if the time in row 4 is between the start and end times, the formula should return TRUE and trigger the blue fill via conditional...Read more

In this example, the goal is to highlight dates that occur on weekends. In other words, we want to highlight dates that land on either Saturday or Sunday. This problem can be easily solved by applying conditional formatting with a formula based on the WEEKDAY function together with the OR...Read more

The trick with this approach is the calendar header (row 4), which is just a series of valid dates, formatted with the custom number format "d". With a static date in D4, you can use =D4+1 to populate the calendar. This makes it easy to set up a...Read more

In this example, the goal is to highlight differences in two ranges, B2:B11 and C2:C11, using conditional formatting. To do this, we need to create a new conditional formatting rule, triggered by a formula, like this:

1. Select the range B2:C11, starting at cell B2.
...Read more

In this example, the goal is to highlight empty cells in the range C5:J16 with conditional formatting. This is a quick and easy way to locate missing values in a data set. To apply a conditional formatting rule to highlight empty cells, follow these steps:

1. Select the
...Read more

Conditional formatting is evaluated for each cell in the range, relative to the upper left cell in the selection. In this case, the formula uses the MOD function to check the remainder of dividing the value in each cell, with the value in cell E2, which is 9. When the remainder is zero, we know...Read more

When you use a formula to apply conditional formatting, the formula is evaluated relative to the active cell in the selection at the time the rule is created. In this case, the address of the active cell (B5) is used for the row (5) and entered as a mixed...Read more

The AND function takes multiple arguments and returns TRUE only when all arguments return TRUE. The TODAY function returns the current date. Dates in Excel are simply large serial numbers, so you can create a new relative date by adding or subtracting days. TODAY() + 30 creates a new date 30...Read more

When you use a formula to apply conditional formatting, the formula is evaluated relative to the active cell in the selection at the time the rule is created. So, in this case the formula =B4>100 is evaluated for each of the 40 cells in B4:G11. Because B4 is entered as a relative address, the...Read more

When you use a formula to apply conditional formatting, the formula is evaluated for every cell in the selection. In this case, there are no addresses in the formula, so, for every cell in the data, the ROW and ISEVEN functions are run. ROW returns the row number of the cell, and ISEVEN returns...Read more

When you use a formula to apply conditional formatting, the formula is evaluated for each cell in the range, relative to the active cell in the selection at the time the rule is created. So, in this case, if you apply the rule to B4:G11, with B4 as the active cell, the rule is evaluated for...Read more

When you use a formula to apply conditional formatting, the formula is evaluated for each cell in the range, relative to the active cell in the selection at the time the rule is created. So, in this case, if you apply the rule to B4:G11, with B4 as the active cell, the rule is evaluated for...Read more

In this example, the goal is to return a list of the locations for a specific value in a 2D array of values (i.e., a table). The target value is entered in cell N5, and the table being tested is in the range C4:L16. The coordinates are supplied from row 4 and column B, as seen in the...Read more

The QUARTILE function is automatic, and will calculate the 1st quartile with an input of 1, the 2nd quartile with an input of 2, and the 3rd quartile with an input of 3. With an input of 0, quartile returns the minimum value in the data.

The trick in this case is to arrange the...Read more

Note: This example assumes the start date will be provided as the first of the month. See below for a formula that will dynamically return the first day of the current month.

With the layout of the grid as shown, the main problem is to calculate the date in the first cell in the...Read more

In this example, the goal is to apply conditional formatting to cells that begin with specific text, which is entered in cell G2. The highlighting is done automatically with a conditional formatting rule applied to the range B4:G12. The rule type is "Use a formula to determine which cells...Read more

The key to this approach is the calendar header (row 4), which is just a series of valid dates, formatted with the custom number format "d". With a hardcoded date in D4, you can use =D4+1 to populate the calendar. This allows you to set up a conditional formatting rule that compares the date in...Read more

Conditional formatting is applied to all cells in the active selection at the time a rule is created.

In this case, the column references are locked to prevent columns from changing as the formula is evaluated, but the row references are relative so that row numbers are free to change....Read more

The COUNTIF function counts the number of times each value appears in the data range. By definition, each value must appear at least once, so when the count equals 1, the value is unique. When the count is 1, the formula returns TRUE and triggers the...Read more

Conditional formatting is evaluated relative to every cell it is applied to, starting with the active cell in the selection, cell B3 in this case.

To highlight matching rows, we use this logical expression:

$B4=$K$5

The reference...Read more