Count cell colors in excel

• 
  — By
  Sumit Bansal

Watch Video – How to Count Colored Cells in Excel

Wouldn’t it be great if there was a function that could count colored cells in Excel?

Sadly, there isn’t any inbuilt function to do this.

BUT..

It can easily be done.

How to Count Colored Cells in Excel

In this tutorial, I will show you three ways to count colored cells in Excel (with and without VBA):

1. Using Filter and SUBTOTAL function
2. Using GET.CELL function
3. Using a Custom Function created using VBA

#1 Count Colored Cells Using Filter and SUBTOTAL

To count colored cells in Excel, you need to use the following two steps:

• Filter colored cells
• Use the SUBTOTAL function to count colored cells that are visible (after filtering).

Suppose you have a dataset as shown below:

There are two background colors used in this data set (green and orange).

Here are the steps count colored cells in Excel:

1. In any cell below the data set, use the following formula: =SUBTOTAL(102,E1:E20)
   
2. Select the headers.
3. Go to Data –> Sort and Filter –> Filter. This will apply a filter to all the headers.
4. Click on any of the filter drop-downs.
5. Go to ‘Filter by Color’ and select the color. In the above dataset, since there are two colors used for highlighting the cells, the filter shows two colors to filter these cells.

As soon as you filter the cells, you will notice that the value in the SUBTOTAL function changes and returns only the number of cells that are visible after filtering.

How does this work?

The SUBTOTAL function uses 102 as the first argument, which is used to count visible cells (hidden rows are not counted) in the specified range.

If the data if not filtered it returns 19, but if it is filtered, then it only returns the count of the visible cells.

Try it Yourself.. Download the Example File

#2 Count Colored Cells Using GET.CELL Function

GET.CELL is a Macro4 function that has been kept due to compatibility reasons.

It does not work if used as regular functions in the worksheet.

However, it works in Excel named ranges.

See Also: Know more about GET.CELL function.

Here are the three steps to use GET.CELL to count colored cells in Excel:

• Create a Named Range using GET.CELL function
• Use the Named Range to get color code in a column
• Using the Color Number to Count the number of Colored Cells (by color)

Let’s deep dive and see what to do in each of the three mentioned steps.

Creating a Named Range

Getting the Color Code for Each Cell

In the cell adjacent to the data, use the formula =GetColor

This formula would return 0 if there is NO background color in a cell and would return a specific number if there is a background color.

This number is specific to a color, so all the cells with the same background color get the same number.

Count Colored Cells using the Color Code

If you follow the above process, you would have a column with numbers corresponding to the background color in it.

To get the count of a specific color:

• Somewhere below the dataset, give the same background color to a cell that you want to count. Make sure you are doing this in the same column that you used in creating the named range. For example, I used Column A, and hence I will use the cells in column ‘A’ only.
• In the adjacent cell, use the following formula:

=COUNTIF($F$2:$F$20,GetColor)

This formula will give you the count of all the cells with the specified background color.

How Does It Work?

The COUNTIF function uses the named range (GetColor) as the criteria. The named range in the formula refers to the adjacent cell on the left (in column A) and returns the color code for that cell. Hence, this color code number is the criteria.

The COUNTIF function uses the range ($F$2:$F$18) which holds the color code numbers of all the cells and returns the count based on the criteria number.

Try it Yourself.. Download the Example File

#3 Count Colored Using VBA (by Creating a Custom Function)

In the above two methods, you learned how to count colored cells without using VBA.

But, if you are fine with using VBA, this is the easiest of the three methods.

Using VBA, we would create a custom function, that would work like a COUNTIF function and return the count of cells with the specific background color.

Here is the code:

'Code created by Sumit Bansal from https://trumpexcel.com
Function GetColorCount(CountRange As Range, CountColor As Range)
Dim CountColorValue As Integer
Dim TotalCount As Integer
CountColorValue = CountColor.Interior.ColorIndex
Set rCell = CountRange
For Each rCell In CountRange
  If rCell.Interior.ColorIndex = CountColorValue Then
    TotalCount = TotalCount + 1
  End If
Next rCell
GetColorCount = TotalCount
End Function

To create this custom function:

To use this function, simply use it as any regular excel function.

Syntax: =GetColorCount(CountRange, CountColor)

• CountRange: the range in which you want to count the cells with the specified background color.
• CountColor: the color for which you want to count the cells.

To use this formula, use the same background color (that you want to count) in a cell and use the formula. CountColor argument would be the same cell where you are entering the formula (as shown below):

Note: Since there is a code in the workbook, save it with a .xls or .xlsm extension.

Try it Yourself.. Download the Example File

Do you know any other way to count colored cells in Excel?

If yes, do share it with me by leaving a comment.

You May Also Like the Following Excel Tutorials:

• Count Cells that Contain Text
• How to Sum by Color in Excel (Formula & VBA)
• Filter Cells with Bold Font Formatting
• How to Format Partial Text Strings using VBA
• Highlight EVERY Other ROW in Excel (using conditional formatting).
• How to Quickly Highlight Blank Cells in Excel.
• How to Compare Two Columns in Excel.

67 thoughts on “How to Count Colored Cells in Excel – A Step by Step Tutorial + Video”

1. I’m noticing that the VBA method doesn’t work with conditional formatting of background colors. Any workaround for hat?

   • I have the same issue

2. Hi, I am using the VBA module to count preferred meeting session times, it was working OK – until I added a separate VBA module called CounxlDiagonalDown to count diagonal borders (people who have indicated they are not attending said meeting), and now I am getting a #NAME? syntax error on the GetColorCount. any suggestions on a fix? Thanks

3. Thanks, your VB macro works perfectly!!

4. Great stuff, but the VB does not work on conditional formatting.. only if you manually change the background color of cells. Have any idea to count backgrounds with conditional formating?

5. Thank you so much. Just what I needed.

6. Great vba function! Very useful. I change the ‘interior’ to ‘font’ and it works nicely when counting range with different font colors. However, I tried it to conditional formatting and it didn’t work. Any idea, why?

7. Does this work with horizontal range. Doesnt seem to be working in mine with an horizontal range

8. Fantastic video and article. Very helpful and simple to follow. Thank you!

9. Simple and straight forward. This did the job. Thank you!

10. I have a set of two ranges with compassion:
    Say my A2:A10 with data of
    B2:B10 with data of
    I applied function in C2 and draged upto C10<=if(isna(Match($A$2:$A$10,$B$2:$B$10,0)),A2,» «)
    Which give me the result as (this result says not shared number of Set A2:A10 to B2:B10)
    Now I coloured Full set of A2:A10 and also B4 and B9 as yellow and I need the out put in C2 to C10 as

    Can any body help me to fix this problem

11. (VBA Solution)
    Too good to be true…just throws the standard formula error (“not trying to type a formula etc.”

12. Thank you so much, this solve my problems.

13. The code in the screen shot of the VBA has errors

14. Help! Is there anyway to modify this VBA so that it works for =max

15. GOOD TRICKS FOR COUNTING BY COLOUR

16. tried =SUBTOTAL(102,$E$2:$E$20) and didn’t work. waste of time

17. Is there a way to count the cells by color but also having a criteria?. For example I want to count the cells in a column that are colored grey but only the ones that have an specific value on them like having the word “unique” in the cell.

    I would really appreciate the help thanks

    • I know this is kind of a ghetto solution, but:
      I just copied the unique cells I needed to a different worksheet and did the function there, it worked perfectly

18. Great code. However, it does not automatically update, unless I click on the cell each time. Please note, I have excel set to automatically update calculations, so not sure why not working.

19. The VBA function worked great!! I’m now showing off to anyone in the office who will listen! Thanks very much

20. Hello! I cannot get my get.cell (38,…) to work. Is there any chance I could contact you?

    • Can you please try with ; instead of , ? It work for me.

21. Using VBA was perfect! Thanks

22. I’m using your VBA method, and it works just fine, but is there any way to make it work for cells that have RGB color values instead of the standard ones from the color palette? Using .ColorIndex only works for those types of colors

23. Hi,
    The function option works fine, there is only one thing. As soon as one of the colours changes the sum won’t refresh, is there an way to sort this out ?

    • Delete the module > save > close and reopen file > add the module again > click on any cell with the formula > press “enter”

    • Push F2.
      Push Enter.

24. Is there a way to apply this to rows rather than columns?!

25. The VBA formula worked great on my spreadsheet. But, I saved it and re-opened and now all the cells where I had formulas say #Name?. I checked and the code is still in the module. It comes up in the list when I begin to type =getcolorcount. I tried removing the Code and re-inserting and can’t get the formula to work any longer. I’m using Excel 2010, is there any reason this suddenly wouldn’t work now?

    Please help – this formula was perfect for my spreadsheet for work because I didn’t want to have to add another column to the spreadsheet to get this to work.

    Thanks,
    Jana

26. Does this work in an online excel sheet?

27. Hi,
    Thanks for the VBA code, I used your code and it works perfect – it counts the colored cells, but it does not update automatically. If a new cell is colored, everyctime I have to click on the formula to have it update the count.
    Is there any other way to get this automated when a new cell is colored?
    Appreciate your response

28. I’ve used your VB method and it works great, thank you so much! I do have an issue though that I’m having troubles resolving…

    I’m using your formula as part of a calendar to track equipment utilization by filling the cells with color when the equipment is used. The problem I’m having is that the formula does not automatically recalculate when new colored cells are entered. It does recalculate when you click on the cell containing the formula and press enter, but I’ve got hundreds of assets that I’m tracking and that’s not an efficient way of doing it.

    I’ve tried all the usual, F9, recalculate formula, recalculate worksheet, etc. nothing works. I’ve even recorded Macros of actually highlighting all formula cells and clicking enter. It works when I do it, but the macro returns a value error when used.

    Do you have a work around for this or another VB Macro that can be assigned to a radio button to recalculate the colored cell totals each time the calendar is updated?

    • Ctrl-Alt-F9

29. I found this article very useful, yet the VBA functions didn’t work. I have a table with various data, I used the conditional formatting in one column and built 5 rules and based on that cells have been colored in greed, red and yellow…any thoughts?

    • I have come across 5 functions that count coloured cells such as this code, and none of them work on conditional formatting.

30. I have used your following code and it works perfectly:

    Function GetColorCount(CountRange As Range, CountColor As Range)
    Dim CountColorValue As Integer
    Dim TotalCount As Integer
    CountColorValue = CountColor.Interior.ColorIndex
    Set rCell = CountRange
    For Each rCell In CountRange
    If rCell.Interior.ColorIndex = CountColorValue Then
    TotalCount = TotalCount + 1
    End If
    Next rCell
    GetColorCount = TotalCount
    End Function

    But, now I want to do a little more. For the range of cells, I want to have 4 separate functions. 1) Count cells IF they are a particular color, as well as ending in “*o” 2) Count cells IF they are a particular color, as well as ending in “*s” 3) Count cells IF they are a particular color, as well as having 2 text characters in the cell, “??” and 4) Count cells IF they are a particular color, as well as having a number greater than zero in the cell, “>0”. How can I modify the base “GetColorCount” code to incorporate this additional parameter for each instance?

31. I tried using your 3rd option but I am thinking that I am not right in doing so. Here is what I have and what I am trying to do. I have a spreadsheet with my supervisors and their clock-in times that I export from our schedule and then copy & paste into workbook. I color each row based on if they were on time, late but the time rolled back (7 minute grace period) and late but jumped forward 1/4 hour. I then filter by the supervisor’s last name and then by the “ErrorLog” header, checking only CLOCK IN & LATE CLOCK IN. The “Clock In” option could be either green (on time) or orange (late but rolled back) and then Late Clock In is yellow. The entire ErrorLog column is K10:K118, for all supervisors. Obviously when I sort by both Last Name and ErrorLog headers it reduces the number of rows and hides all the rest. I just want the formula to count each color that is visible. Is what I am doing even possible? I want to be able to change up the filter a bit by changing the Last Name so that I can only see each supervisor individually.

32. Great video…. I do have a question for you… I used your code and it works perfect except for one thing, it counts the colored cells, but it does not update automatically. If a new cell is colored, I have to click on the formula to have it update the count. Is there a code I can add to have it update automatically once a new colored cell is added? Thanks again for a great video!!!

33. Your VBA solution works BUT NOT with colors from “Conditional Formating.”

    I have 17 cells in a column, all under a conditional formatting to turn the cell color “light red” if a certain condition is met. There are only 3 cells that are “light red” (meeting the condition) but your VBA script returns an answer of “17”, meaning it considers all cells “light red”. Then I manually went in and colored one cell (not already highlighted by the conditional formatting) blue, and your VBA returned an answer of “16”. Clearly then, it does not recognize the results of conditional formatting, only “manually entered” colors.

    Any solution? This is critical as the colored cells will be different depending on what conditions are met. I need a way to count them per each condition.

    (I learned a lot about adding a custom VBA code. Thanks!)

    • Same issue! Any suggestions?

    • Was there any answer to this question? thanks.

34. Hi,
    can you use both GetColorCount and Sumbycolor VBA in the same worksheet.

35. Can you please explain what is 38 mentioned in the name manager formula? What does it relate to?

    • If you follow the link to more information about Get.Cell it tells you, I was wondering the same thing.

36. When i press ‘enter’ with you’r download exel i get #NAME? why? PS ; I am new in VBA

38. Hi, please assist. if the cell is in cf it doesn’t count. i am using also the standard cf for date occuring.

    • Hey Mart.. Yes this doesn’t work when conditional formatting is in play. IF you want to count based on CF rules, you can use the same rule you have used to apply conditional formatting and count the total values. For example, if you use CF to highlight cells that contain “Yes”, then use a COUNTIF function to count all these cells.

39. How can you accomplish the same thing except counting cells in a row versus column (as outlined here)? For example, I want to know how many of each color (Red, Yellow, Green, and no color) are in row 2 (range – A2:I2).
    Side note/issue: The Subtotal function seems to only count cells that have something in them. I would like to count cells that are just a color without any text in the cell. Is that possible?
    Thanks for your help.

    • I am looking for this answer as well. I need the count of cells from a bigger range a2:bz52. And some cells are merged. Is there a way for this? Thank you in advance! Zita

40. I liked the VBA option, works like a charm. However if my data range is non-continuous , for example, instead of A1:A10, I need to count the cell color in A1, A4, A9, How should I modify the formula? Thanks.

    • Hi Azz,
      Enclose your non-continuous range within brackets inside the function, (x, y, z, a:c), so for your example, you would use:

      =GetColorCount( ( A1, A4, A9 ), 50 )

      Where,
      50 = Green box color index.

41. If declared strictly and with names more appealing (IMO ;)). Thank you for the code and the idea behind

    Public Function GetColorCount(ByRef Target As Excel.Range, ByRef rgColor As Excel.Range) As Long
    Dim rCell As Excel.Range
    Dim Color As Long
    Dim lgCounter As Long

    Color = rgColor.Interior.ColorIndex
    For Each rCell In Target
    If rCell.Interior.ColorIndex = Color Then lgCounter = lgCounter + 1
    Next rCell
    GetColorCount = lgCounter
    End Function

42. Hi,

    I started using your Count Cells Based on Background Color in Excel #3 using VBA. This wors very good. Thanks for it.
    But now I have a problem using the same function by checking cells where the background color is set by Conditional Formatting. I am checking for dates older than today() and mark these cells in red background; works well using conditional formatting but the count doesn’t work for these cells.
    thank you for any idea or hint

    • Hi Nico,

      Do you use a formula in your conditional formatting (CF)?
      If you do, it returns TRUE and you are coloring the cells that meet that condition. This means that if you put the CF formula into a COUNTIF formula, you can count the cells that meet the CF conditions!

      Gr,
      Raymond.

      • Hi Raymond,

        No I’m not using a formula. I use a standard rule type: Cell Value “less than or equal to” =$A$1
        In A+ I only update the day =today().
        thx
        Nico

        • Nico,

          I did a test and I realised I needed a help column to do the job.

          Say that range A2:A10 has your values where you apply the CF to.
          Formula in help column B:
          in B2 put ‘=OR(A2<$A$1,A2=$A$1)’, copy down and you will get a couple of TRUEs or FALSEs.

          The count formula anywhere can then be: =COUNTIF(B2:B10,TRUE).

          Or you can just use an IF formula in the help column, giving you 1 or 0 back. Then a simple SUM somewhere and there you are.

          I must be do-able without the help column but I don’t know how (yet)!

          Raymond

          • Hi Raymond,

            A help column isn’t very usefull and would need many additional help columns, so I searched and searched.
            On http://www.excel-inside.de (a german Excel & VBA site) I found an example using .Font.ColorIndex . With this information I found .Interior.ColorIndex and my day was made 🙂

            Next step: searching for the color indexes on https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/ff840443.aspx

            and it seems to work – refreshing manually after changes – but it works:
            ‘Function ColorRed(Area As Range)
            ‘ColorRed = 0
            ‘For Each cell In Area
            ‘If cell.Interior.ColorIndex = 3 Then
            ‘ColorRed = ColorRed + cell.Count
            ‘End If
            ‘Next
            ‘End Function
            Nico

          • Hi Nico,

            Thanks for the update and also for you providing the resources that led to the solution you found!

            An UDF (User Defined Function) is harmless in your case because you are using it in only one cell to get the count. So that’s great.
            In complex workbooks, where formulas must be in several rows, UDF’s are not recommanded unless no other choice because they make the workbook slow.
            And as they say, there is always another way, a simple, faster and stronger way…

            I found a non-vba solution: an array formula.

            Put the following formula adjusted to your needs where you want your count.
            In this example, I assume the IF statement is the same as in your conditional format that gives the cells a red color when TRUE. The formula says:
            for each cell in range A2:A10, if the cell value is equal or less than the value of A1, give 1, otherwise give 0. Then give a sum of all the individual results.
            I’ve used 1 IF with an OR but it didn’t work so it became 2 IF’s.

            Instead of just pressing ENTER, press CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER to make it an array formula, which you can recognize by the { } that Excel automatically puts around it:
            =SUM(IF(A2:A10<$A$1,1,IF(A2:A10=$A$1,1,0)))

            So after CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER, you will see:
            {=SUM(IF(A2:A10<$A$1,1,IF(A2:A10=$A$1,1,0)))}

            No more manual refresh!

            More about the topic:
            http://www.cpearson.com/excel/arrayformulas.aspx

            Gr,
            Raymond.

          • i am not a vbe user but this explanation was clear enough to take the dive;
            so i tried solution number 3 and it works!
            however, how can i make the sheet update the numbers after i changed the color of a cell? at this moment i need to go to this cell en hit enter;
            there must be a ‘trick’ to do this on my imac!

          • Hi Cezi,

            The only workaround I could came up with involves 2 steps:
            [1] Put ‘Application.Volatile True’ at the beginning of the the function code
            [2] Put the following code in the worksheet event area (it assumes that you want an update if you select any cell in range [A1:A10]; please adjust accordingly):

            Private Sub Worksheet_SelectionChange(ByVal Target As Range)
            ‘Application.StatusBar = False
            On Error Resume Next ‘To avoid error if the selection isn’t in [A1:A10]
            If Target.Address = Intersect(Target, Range(“A1:A10”)).Address Then
            ActiveSheet.Calculate
            ‘Application.StatusBar = “Calculated”
            End If
            End Sub

            Gr,
            Raymond.

          • Hello Raymond, I am having the same issue but am not exactly sure how to follow the workaround you posted.

            [1] Should I paste ‘Application.Volatile True’ after the following row?

            ‘Function GetColorCount(CountRange As Range, CountColor As Range)’

            [2] Where should I put the code you have entered? I’m afraid I don’t know what the “worksheet event area” is or where I can find it.

            Thank you for your patience and a great guide!

            /Kara

          • Raymond,

            Your code for the workaround however disables copying and pasting? Do you know how to fix this?

            -Amy

          • Hi Amy,

            Sorry about that. Yes, there is a fix. The first line of code should be:
            If Application.CutCopyMode Then Exit Sub

            So, the final worksheet ‘SelectionChange’ event should look like this:
            [CODE]
            Private Sub Worksheet_SelectionChange(ByVal Target As Range)
            ‘If we are copying, do nothing and exit
            If Application.CutCopyMode Then Exit Sub

            On Error Resume Next ‘To avoid error if the selection isn’t in [A1:A10]
            If Target.Address = Intersect(Target, Range(“A1:A10”)).Address Then
            ActiveSheet.Calculate
            End If
            End Sub
            [END CODE]

            -Raymond

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