Excel format cells in formula

In this article we will learn how to format the cells which is containing the formulas in Microsoft Excel.

To format the cells which contain formulas, we use the Conditional Formatting feature along with the ISFORMULA function in Microsoft Excel.

Conditional Formatting: —Conditional Formatting is used to highlight the important points with color in a report based on certain conditions.

ISFORMULA-This function is used to check whether a cell reference contains a formula and it returns a True or False.

To check, follow the below given steps:-

• Select the cell F3 and write the formula.
• =ISFORMULA(E3), press Enter on the keyboard.
• The function will return true.
• It means cell E3 contains a formula.

Let’s take an example to understand how we can highlight the cells which contain formulas.

We have data in range C2:G7, in which column C contains Agents name, column D contains No. of sales, column E contains sales amount and column F contains Average sales amount. We need to highlight the cells which contain the formula.

Follow the below given steps:-

• Select the data range C3:F7.
• Go to the Home Tab.
• Select Conditional Formatting from the Styles group.
• From the Conditional formatting drop down menu, select New Rule.

 

• The New Formatting Rule dialog box will appear.
• Click on “Use a formula to determine which cells to format” from Select a Rule type.
• Write the formula in Formula tab.
• =ISFORMULA(C3:F7)

 

• Click on Format button.
• The Format Cells dialog box will appear.
• In the Fill tab, choose the color as per the requirement.
• Click on OK on the New Formatting Rule dialog box.

 

• Click on OK on the Format Cells dialog box.

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To control more precisely what cells will be formatted, you can use formulas to apply conditional formatting.

Want more?

Use conditional formatting

Manage conditional formatting rule precedence

To control more precisely what cells will be formatted, you can use formulas to apply conditional formatting.

In this example, I am going to format the cells in the Product column if the corresponding cell in the In stock column is greater than 300.

I select the cells I want to conditionally format.

When you select a range of cells, the first cell you select is the active cell.

In this example, I selected from B2 through B10, so B2 is the active cell. We’ll need to know that shortly.

Create a new rule, select Use a formula to determine which cells to format. Since B2 is the active cell, I type =E2>300.

Note that in the formula, I used the relative cell reference E2 to make sure the formula adjusts to correctly format the other cells in column B.

I click the Format button and choose how I want to format the cells. I am going to use a blue fill.

Click OK to accept the color; click OK again to apply the format.

And the cells in the Product column, where the corresponding cell in column E is greater than 300, are conditionally formatted.

When I change a value in column E to greater than 300, the conditional formatting in the Product column automatically applies.

You can create multiple rules that apply to the same cells.

In this example, I want different fill colors for different ranges of scores.

I select the cells I want to apply a rule to, create a new rule that uses the rule type Use a formula to determine which cells to format.

I want to format a cell if its value is greater than or equal to 90.

The active cell is B2, so I enter the formula =B2>=90.

And configure the rule to apply a green fill when the formula is true for a cell. The cell that has a value greater than or equal to 90 is filled with green.

I create another rule for the same cells, but this time, I want to format a cell if its value is greater than or equal to 80 and less than 90.

The formula is =AND(B2>=80,B2<90).

And I choose a different fill color.

I create similar rules for 70 and 60. The last rule is for values less than 60.

The cells are now a rainbow of colors, and these are the rules we just created to enable this.

Up next, Manage conditional formatting.

When working with formulas, there is always a possibility that someone (or even you) may delete a cell (or clear the contents of a cell/range) that has formulas in it.

Wouldn’t it be better if these cells with formulas are highlighted or formatted in a way that makes these stand out? This would help ensure you don’t end up deleting these cells by mistake.

In this tutorial, I will show you how to auto-format formulas in Excel (i.e., highlight the cells with formulas).

So let’s get started!

Autoformat Formulas using Conditional Formatting

The easiest way to autoformat cells with formulas is to use conditional formatting.

If you can somehow identify cells that have formulas, you can easily format these differently using conditional formatting.

And this is where you can use the ISFORMULA function, a function that was introduced in Excel 2013.

The ISFORMULA function checks whether a cell has a formula in it or not, and if it has a formula, then it returns TRUE (else FALSE).

Below are the steps to use this function in Conditional Formatting to autoformat formulas in Excel:

1. Select the dataset in which you want to format the cells with formulas
2. Click the Home tab
3. In the Styles group, click on Conditional Formatting
4. Click on New Rule
5. In the New Formatting Rule dialog box that opens, select ‘Use a formula to determine which cells to format’
6. In the formula field, enter the formula =ISFORMULA(A1)
7. Click on the Format button
8. In the Format Cells dialog box that opens, specify the formatting that you want to apply to the cells with formulas. In my case, I am using the orange cell fill color
9. Click OK

The above steps would instantly autoformat all the cells that have a formula in it.

Not only this, in case you change any of the cells and add a formula to it, the color would automatically change. Since conditional formatting is dynamic and checks for each cell every time there is a change in the worksheet, the above steps make sure cells are automatically highlighted.

While this is my preferred method to autoformat formulas in Excel, there is another way as well.

Also read: How to Strikethrough in Excel (5 Ways + Shortcuts)

Autoformat Formulas using Go To Special

Unlike the Conditional formatting method, this one is not dynamic.

So when you do this once, it will select all the cells with formulas and you can format them at one go. But if now you change any cell and add a formula, that cell will not get highlighted.

Below are the steps to use Go To Special to select all cells with Formulas and then format these:

1. Select the dataset in which you want to format the cells with formulas
2. Hit the F5 key – this will open the Go To dialog box
3. Click on the Special button
4. In the Go To Special dialog box, Click on Formulas
5. Click OK

The above steps would select all the cells that have formulas in it. Once these cells are selected, you can apply whatever formatting you want. For example, you can apply a cell color or can change the font to bold.

As I mentioned, now if you add a new formula to the range, it will not get autoformatted. You will have to repeat the same process again.

Format Formulas using VBA

Another quick method to quickly format cells with formulas is by using VBA.

This method does exactly the same thing as the one the previous one (using Go To Special), but with a single line of code.

Below is the VBA code that will instantly highlight all the cells that have formulas in it in yellow color:

Selection.SpecialCells(xlCellTypeFormulas, 23).Interior.Color = vbYellow

This code first selects all the cells that have formulas and then applies the yellow color (specified by vbYellow).

Here are the steps to use this VBA macro code:

1. Right-click on the active sheet tab name (the one where you have the data with formulas that you want to format).
2. Click on View Code
3. If you don’t see the ‘Immediate window’ in the VB Editor already, click on the ‘View’ option in the menu and then click on ‘Immediate Window’
4. Copy and paste the above VBA code in the ‘Immediate Window’
5. Place the cursor at the end of the line
6. Hit the Enter key

The above code first identifies all the cells with formulas and then applies the yellow color. You can modify the code in case you want to apply some other type of formatting.

So these are two simple ways to quickly autoformat formulas in Excel.

Hope you found this tutorial useful!

You may also like the following Excel tutorials:

• How to Format Phone Numbers in Excel
• How to Clear Contents in Excel without Deleting Formulas
• How to Delete a Comment in Excel (or Delete ALL Comments)
• Excel Showing Formula Instead of Result
• SUMPRODUCT vs SUMIFS Function in Excel
• How to Convert Decimal to Fraction in Excel
• How to Shade Every Other Row in Excel
• How to Autofill Dates in Excel (Autofill Months/Years)
• How to Apply Comma Style in Excel
• How to Increase/Decrease Indent in Excel? (Easy Shortcut)

This tutorial about cell format types in Excel is an essential part of your learning of Excel and will definitely do a lot of good to you in your future use of this software, as a lot of tasks in Excel sheets are based on cells format, as well as several errors are due to a bad implementation of it.

A good comprehension of the cell format types will build your knowledge on a solid basis to master Excel basics and will considerably save you time and effort when any related issue occurs.

A- Introduction

Excel software formats the cells depending on what type of information they contain.

To update the format of the highlighted cell, go to the “Home” tab of the ribbon and click, in the “Number” group of commands on the “Number Format” drop-down list.

The drop-down list allows the selection to be changed.

Cell formatting options in the “Number Format” drop-down list are:

• General
• Number
• Currency
• Accounting
• Short Date
• Long Date
• Time
• Percentage
• Fraction
• Scientific
• Text
• And the “More Number Formats” option.

Clicking the “More Number Formats” option brings up additional options for formatting cells, including the ability to do special and custom formatting options.

These options are discussed in detail in the below sections.

Cell format types in Excel are: General, Number, Currency, Accounting, Date, Time, Percentage, Fraction, Scientific, Text, Special (Zip Code, Zip Code + 4, Phone Number, Social Security Number), and Custom. You can get them from the “Number Format” drop-down list in the “Home” tab, or from the launcher arrow below it.

I will detail each one of them in the following sections:

1- General format

By default, cells are formatted as “General”, which could store any type of information. The General format means that no specific format is applied to the selected cell.

When information is typed into a cell, the cell format may change automatically. For example, if I enter “4/4/19” into a cell and press enter, then highlight the cell to view details about it, the cell format will be listed as “Date” instead of “General”.

Similarly, we can update a cell’s format before or after entering data to adjust the way the data appears. Changing the format of a cell to “Currency” will make it so information entered is displayed as a dollar amount.

Typing a number into this cell and pressing enter will not just show that number, but will instead format it accordingly.

Before pressing enter, Excel shows the value which was typed: “4”.

After pressing enter, the value is updated based on the formatting type selected.

Don’t let the format type showed in the illustration at the drop-down list confusing you; it is reflecting the cell below (i.e. E4), since we validated by an Enter.

2- Number format

Cells formatted as numbers behave differently than general formatted cells. By default, when a number is entered, or when a cell is formatted as a number already, the alignment of the information within the cell will be on the right instead of on the left. This makes it easier to read a list of numbers such as the below.

Note in the above screenshot that since we didn’t choose the “Number” format for our cells, they still have a “General” one. They are numbers for Excel (meaning, we can do calculations on them), but they didn’t have yet the number format and its formatting aspects:

You can set the formatting options for Excel numbers in the “Format Cells” dialog box.

To do that, select the cell or the range of cells you want to set the formatting options for their numbers, and go to the “Home” tab of the ribbon, then in the “Number” group of commands, click on the launcher of the dialog box (the arrow on the right-down side of the group).

Excel opens the “Format Cells” dialog box in its “Number” tab. Click in the “Category” pane on “Number”.

• In this dialog box, you can decide how many decimal places to display by updating options in the “Decimal places” field.

Note that this feature is also available in the “Home” tab of the ribbon where you can go to the “Number” group of commands and click the Increase Decimal or Decrease Decimal buttons.

Here is the result of consecutive increasing of decimal places on our example of data (1 decimal; 2 decimals; and 3 decimals):

• You can also decide if commas should be shown in the display as a thousand separator, by updating the “Use 1000 Separator (,)” option in the “Format Cells” dialog box.

This feature is also available in the “Home” tab of the ribbon by clicking the “Comma Style” button  in the “Number” group of commands.

Note that using the Comma Style button will automatically set the format to Accounting.

• Another option from the Format Cells dialog box is to decide how negative numbers should display by using the “Negative numbers” field.

There are four options for displaying negative
numbers.

1. Display
   negative numbers with a negative sign before the number.
2. Display
   negative numbers in red.
3. Display
   negative numbers in parentheses.
4. Display
   negative numbers in red and in parentheses.

3- Currency format

Cells formatted as currency have a currency symbol such as a dollar sign $ immediately to the left of the number in the cell, and contain two numbers after the decimal by default.

The alignment of numbers in currency formatted cells will be on the right for readability.

Currency formatting options are similar to
number formatting options, apart from the currency symbol display.

• As with regular number formatting, you can decide, in the “Format Cells” dialog box, how many decimal places to display by updating the field “Decimal places”.

You can also find this feature in the “Home” tab of the ribbon, by going to the “Number” group of commands and clicking the Increase Decimal or Decrease Decimal .

• You can also decide what currency symbol should be shown in the display by updating the “Symbol” field in the “Format Cells” dialog box.

• As with regular number formatting, you can also decide how negative numbers should display by updating the “Negative numbers” field in the “Format Cells” dialog box.

There are four
options for displaying negative numbers.

1. Display
   negative numbers with a negative sign before the number.
2. Display
   negative numbers in red.
3. Display
   negative numbers in parentheses.
4. Display
   negative numbers in red and in parentheses.

4- Accounting format

Like with the currency format, cells formatted as accounting have a currency symbol such as a dollar sign $; however, this symbol is to the far left of the cell, while the alignment of numbers in the cell is on the right. Accounting numbers contain two numbers after the decimal by default.

Clicking the “Accounting Number Format” button in the “Number” group of commands of the “Home” tab, will quickly format a cell or cells as Accounting.

The down arrow to the right of the Accounting Number Format button allows selection between common symbols used for accounting, including English (dollar sign), English (pound), Euro, Chinese, and French symbols.

Accounting formatting options in the “Format Cells” dialog box (“Home” tab of the ribbon, in the “Number” group of commands, click on the launcher of the “Number Format” dialog box), are similar to number and currency formatting options.

• You can decide how many decimal places to display by updating its option in the “Format Cells” dialog box.

As mentioned before in this tutorial, this feature is also available directly in the “Home” tab of the ribbon by clicking the Increase Decimal or Decrease Decimal buttons in the “Number” group of commands.

• You can also decide in the “Format Cells” dialog box, what currency symbol should be shown in the display by using the “Symbol” drop-down list.
  This dropdown gives a much broader list of options than the “Accounting Number Format” option in the “Home” tab of the ribbon.

Note that with the Accounting formatting option, negative numbers display in parentheses by default. There are not options to change this.

5- Date format

There are options for “Short Date” and “Long Date” in the “Number Format” dropdown list of the “Home” tab.

Short date shows the date with slashes separating month, day, and year. The order of the month and day may vary depending on your computer’s location settings.

Long date shows the date with the day of the week, month, day, and year separated by commas.

More options for formatting dates are available in the “Format Cells” dialog box (accessible by clicking in the “Number Format” dropdown list of the “Home” tab and choosing the “More Number Formats” option at the bottom).

• You can choose from a long list of available date formats.

• You can update the location settings used for formatting the date. This will alter the list of format options in the above list and will adjust the display and potentially the order of the elements (day, month, year) within the date.
  Note the below example when we switch from English (United States) format to English (United Kingdom) format.

6- Time format

Cells formatted as time display the time of
day. The default time display is based on your computer’s location settings.

Time formatting options are available in the “Format Cells” dialog box (accessible by choosing the “More Number Formats” option at the bottom of the “Number Format” dropdown list in the “Home” tab of the ribbon).

• You can choose from a long list of available time formats.

• You can update the location settings used for formatting the time. This will alter the list of format options in the above list and will adjust the display.

7- Percentage format

Cells formatted as percentage display a percent sign to the right of the number. You can change the format of a cell to a percentage using the “Number Format” dropdown list, or by clicking the “Percent Style” button . Both options are accessible from the “Home” tab of the ribbon, in the “Number” group of commands.

Note that updating a number to a percentage
will expect that the number already contains the decimal. For example:

A cell containing the value 0.08, as a percentage, will show 8%.

A cell containing the value 8, as a percentage, will show 800%.

Percentage formatting options are available in the “Format Cells” dialog box, accessible by clicking on “More Number Formats” of the “Number Format” dropdown list in the “Home” tab of the ribbon.

8- Fraction format

Cells formatted as a fraction display with a slash
symbol separating the numerator and denominator.

Fraction formatting options are available in the “Format Cells” dialog box, accessible by clicking in the “Home” tab of the ribbon, on “More Number Formats” of the “Number Format” dropdown list.

• Note that
  when selecting the format to use for a fraction, Excel will round to the
  nearest fraction where the formatting criteria can be met.

As an example, if the
formatting option selected is “Up to one digit”, entering a fraction with two
digits will cause rounding to occur. For example, with the setting of “Up to
one digit”,

If we enter a value of 7/16, the value displayed will be 4/9, as converting to 9ths was the option with only one digit which required the least amount of rounding.

For another example, if the formatting option selected is “As quarters”, entering a fraction that cannot be expressed in quarters (divisible by four) will also cause rounding to occur.

If we enter a value of 5/8, the value displayed will be 3/4. Excel rounded up to 6/8, or 3/4, which was the closest option divisible by four.

• Also note
  that for the formatting options with “Up to x digits”, Excel will always round
  down to the lowest exact equivalent fraction when possible.

For example, if we enter a value of 2/4 with one of these formatting options active, the value displayed will be 1/2, as this is the mathematical equivalent. This behavior will not take place for formatting options “As…”, since these specifically determine what the denominator should be.

• Fractions listed as more than a whole (meaning the numerator is a higher number than the denominator), such as 7/4 will automatically be adjusted into a whole number and a fraction 13/4, where the fraction follows the formatting rules selected.

9- Scientific format

Scientific format, otherwise known as
Exponential Notation, allows very large and small numbers to be accurately
represented within a cell, even when the size of the cell cannot accommodate
the size of the numbers.

The way exponential notation works is to theoretically place a decimal in a spot that would make the number shorter, then describe where to move that decimal to return to the original number.

Examples with large numbers, where the decimal is moved to the left:

For the number 300 to be expressed in
exponential notation, Excel moves the decimal from after the whole number
300.00 to between the 3 and the 00. This is typed out as E+02 since the decimal
was moved two places to the left. The other examples are similar, where the
decimal was moved 6 and 12 places to the left.

Examples with small numbers, where the decimal is moved to the right:

For the number 0.2 to be expressed in
exponential notation, Excel moves the decimal to create a whole number 2. This
is typed out as E-01 since the decimal was moved one place to the right. The
other examples are similar, where the decimal was moved 4 and 10 places to the
right.

Scientific formatting options are listed in the “Format Cells” dialog box, accessible by going to the “Home” tab of the ribbon, and clicking the “More Number Formats” option of the “Number Format” dropdown list.

The only option available is to alter the
number of decimal places shown in the number prior to the scientific notation.

For example, for the value 11.43 formatted with the scientific format, if we change the Decimal places from 2 to 1, the display will change as follows.

Two decimals:  

One decimal:    

10- Text format

Cells can be formatted as Text through the
“Number Format” dropdown list, in the “Number” group of commands of the “Home”
tab.

Using the Text format in Excel allows values to be entered as they are, without Excel changing them per the above formatting rules.

In general, when entering a text in a cell, you won’t need to set its type to “Text”, as the default format type “General” is sufficient in most cases.

This may be useful when you want to display numbers with leading zeros, want to have spaces before or after numbers or letters, or when you want to display symbols that Excel normally uses for formulas.

Below are examples of some fields formatted as Text.

Note that when a number is formatted as Text, Excel will display a symbol showing that there could be a possible error .

Clicking the cell, then clicking the pop-up icon will show what the error may be and offer suggestions for resolution.

11- Special format

Special format offers four options in the “Format Cells” dialog box, accessible by going to the “Home” tab of the ribbon, and clicking the launcher arrow in the “Number” group of commands.

• Zip Code

When less than five numbers are entered in Zip
Code format, leading zeros will be added to bring the total to five numbers.

When more than five numbers are entered in Zip Code format, all numbers will be displayed, even though this does not meet the format criteria.

• Zip Code + 4

Zip Code + 4 format automatically creates a
dash symbol – before the last four numbers in the zip code.

When less than nine numbers are entered in Zip
Code + 4 format, leading zeros will be added to bring the total to nine
numbers.

When more than nine numbers are entered in Zip Code + 4 format, extra numbers are displayed prior to the dash symbol –.

• Phone Number

Phone Number format automatically creates a
dash –
before the last four numbers in the phone number. This format also adds
parentheses ( ) around the area code when an area code is entered.

When less than the expected number of digits
are entered in Phone Number format, only the entered digits will be displayed,
starting from the end of the phone number, as shown on the third and fourth
lines, below.

When more than the expected number of digits
are entered in Phone Number format, extra numbers are displayed within the area
code parentheses.

Note that Phone Number format in Excel does not handle the number 1 before an area code. This entry would be treated like any other extra number.

• Social Security Number

Social Security Number format automatically
creates a dash – before the last four numbers in the social security number
and a dash before the last six numbers in the social security number.

When less than nine numbers are entered in
Social Security Number format, leading zeros will be added to bring the total
to nine numbers.

When more than nine numbers are entered in Social Security Number format, extra numbers are displayed prior to the first dash –.

12- Custom format

Custom formats can be used or added through the
“Format Cells” dialog box, accessible from the “Number” group of commands in
the “Home” tab of the ribbon by clicking the “Number Format” launcher arrow.

This can be useful if the above formatting options do not work for your needs. Custom number formats can be created or updated by typing into the “Type” field of the “Format Cells” dialog box.

When creating a new custom format, be sure to use an existing custom format that you are okay with changing.

Custom number formats are separated, at
maximum, into four parts separated by semicolons ; .

• Part 1: How
  to handle positive number values
• Part 2: How
  to handle negative number values
• Part 3: How
  to handle zero number values
• Part 4: How
  to handle text values

Note that if fewer parts are included in the custom format coding, Excel will determine how best to merge the above options: As an example, if two parts are listed, positive and zero values will be grouped.

Note that Excel may update the formatting of some fields to Custom automatically depending on what actions are taken on the field.

C- Common issues caused by wrong cell format types in Excel

1- Common issues due to wrong cell format types in Excel

The most common problems you may encounter with a wrong cell format type in Excel are of 3 types:
– Getting a wrong value.
– Getting an error.
– Formula displayed as-is and not calculated.

Let’s illustrate these 3 cases with some examples:

• Getting a wrong value

This may occur when you enter a value in an already formatted cell with an inappropriate format type, or when you apply a different format to a cell already containing a value.

The following table details some examples:

• Getting an error

This occurs when you enter a text preceded with a symbol of a dash, or plus, or equal, as an element of a list.

Excel wrongly interprets the text as a formula and show the error “The formula contains unrecognized text”.

• Formula displayed as-is and not calculated

In the following example, we tried to calculate the total of prices from cell B2 to B6 using the Excel SUM function, but Excel doesn’t calculate our formula and just displayed it as-is.

The source of the problem is that the result cell, B7, was previously formatted as text before entering the formula.

2- How to correct wrong cell format type issues in Excel

To correct cell format type issues in Excel, apply the right format in the “Number Format” drop-down list, and sometimes, you’ll also need to re-enter the content of the cell. For cells with formulas displayed as text, choose the “General” format, then double click in the cell and press Enter.

The best part of conditional formatting is you can use formulas in it. And, it has a very simple sense to work with formulas.

Your formula should be a logical formula and the result should be TRUE or FALSE. If the formula returns TRUE, you’ll get the formatting, and if FALSE then nothing. The point is, by using formulas you can make the best out of conditional formatting.

Yes, that’s right. In the below example, we have used a formula in CF to check whether the value in the cell is smaller than 1000 or not.

And if that value is smaller than 1000 it will apply the formatting which we have specified, otherwise not. So today in this post, I’d like to share with you simple steps to apply conditional formatting using a formula. And some of the useful examples that you can use in your daily work.

Steps to Apply Conditional Formatting with Formulas

The steps to apply CF with formulas are quite simple:

1. Select the range to apply Conditional Formatting.
2. Add a formula to text a condition.
3. Specify a format to apply when the condition is met.

To learn this in a proper way make sure to download this sample file from here and follow the below-detailed steps.

• First of all, select the range where you want to apply conditional formatting.

• After that, go to Home Tab ➜ Styles ➜ Conditional Formatting ➜ New Rule ➜ Use a formula to determine which cell to format.

• Now, in the “Format values where formula is true” enter the below formula.

=E5<1000

• The next thing is to specify the format to apply and for this, click on the format button and select the format.

• In the end, click OK.

While entering a formula in the CF dialog box you can’t see its result or whether that formula is valid or not. So, the best practice is to check that formula before using it in CF by entering it in a cell.

1. Use a Formula that is Based on Another Cell

Yes, you can apply conditional formatting based on another cell’s value. If you look at the below example, we have added a simple formula that is based on another cell. And if the value of that linked cell meets the condition specified, you’ll get conditional formatting.

When achievement will be below 75%, it will highlight in red color.

2. Conditional Formatting using IF

Whenever I think about conditions, the first thing that comes to my mind is using the IF function. And the best part of this function is, that it fits perfectly in conditional formatting. Let me show you an example:

Here, we have used the IF to create a condition and the condition is when the count of “Done” in range B3:B9 is equal to the count of tasks in the range A3:A9, then the final status will appear.

2. Conditional Formatting with Multiple Conditions

You can create multiple checks in conditions to apply to the format. Once all the conditions or one of the conditions will meet, conditional formatting will apply to the cell. Look at the below example where we have used the average temperature of my town.

And we have used a simply combined IF-AND to highlight the months when the temperature is pretty pleasant. Months where the temperature is between 15 Celsius to 35 Celsius, will get colored.

Just like this, you can also use if with or function.

4. Highlight Alternate Rows with Conditional Formatting

To highlight every alternate row you can use the following formula n CF.

=INT(MOD(ROW(),2))

By using this formula, every row whose number is odd will be highlighted. And, if you want to do vice versa you can use the following formula.

=INT(MOD(ROW()+1,2))

The same kind of formula can use for columns (odd and even) as well.

=INT(MOD(COLUMN(),2))

And for even columns.

=INT(MOD(COLUMN()+1,2))

5. Highlight Cells with Errors using CF

Now let’s come to another example where we will check whether a cell contains an error or not. What we need to do is just insert a formula in conditional formatting that can check the condition and return the result in TRUE or FALSE. You can even verify cells for numbers, text, or some specific values as well.

6. Create a Checklist with Conditional Formatting

Now let’s add some creativity to intelligence. You have already learned how to use a formula that is based on another cell. Here we have linked a checkbox with the B1 cell and further linked the B1 with the formula used in conditional formatting for cell A1.

Now, if you tick mark the checkbox, the value of cell B1 will turn into TRUE and cell A1 gets it conditional formatting [strikethrough].

Points to Remember

1. Your formula should be a logical formula, which leads to a result as TRUE or FALSE.
2. Try not to overload your data with conditional formatting.
3. Always use relative and absolute references in a proper sense.

Sample File

Download this sample file from here to learn more.

This tutorial demonstrates how to apply conditional formatting based on a formula in Excel and Google Sheets.

Conditional Formatting in Excel comes with plenty of preset rules to enable you to quickly format cells according to their content. These preset rules do, however, have limitations, which is where using a formula to determine the format of a cell comes into play. This gives you much greater flexibility over your conditional formatting.

Conditional Formatting Formula Rules

Equal To

1. Highlight the cells where you want to set the conditional formatting and then, in the Ribbon, select Home > Conditional Formatting > New Rule.

1. Select Use a formula to determine which cells to format, and enter the formula:
   =$C4=”Western”

You always need to start your formula with an equal sign.

The formula tests whether the result is TRUE or FALSE much like the traditional Excel IF statement, but in the case of conditional formatting, you do not need to add the true and false conditions. If the formula returns TRUE, then formatting you set in the Format part of the rule is applied to the relevant cells.

You need to use a mixed reference in this formula ($C4) in order to lock the column (make it absolute) but make the row relative. This enables the formatting to format the entire row instead of just a single cell that meets the criteria.

When the rule is evaluated for all the cells in the range, the row changes, but the column does not. This causes the rule to ignore the values in any of the other columns and just concentrate on the values in Column C. If Column C of that row contains the word Western, the formula result is TRUE, and the formatting is applied for the whole row.

1. Click Format… and select your desired formatting.

1. Click OK and then OK again to view the result.

The rows where Column C is Western are highlighted, while other rows are not. In the example above, just two rows end up highlighted.

Not Equal

If you want to create an opposite rule, you can use the <> (not equal to) operator instead of =.

=$C4<>”Western”

This results in the opposite: Most of the rows are now highlighted!

Greater Than

You can also test for greater than using a formula. For example, you can use a formula to check if the values in Column D are greater than $23,000.

=$D4>23000

This rule highlights only rows where the value in Column D is greater than $23,000.

Greater Than or Equal To

Similarly, you could highlight the rows where the value in Column D is greater than or equal to $23,000 with this formula below:

=$D4>=23000

The result for this formula would be slightly different: Rows where the Red value is exactly $23,000 are also highlighted (here, Row 5).

Less Than

Swapping the > sign for a < sign tests for values that are less than $23,000.

=$D4<23000

Now only rows where Red is less than $23,000 are highlighted.

Less Than or Equal To

To change the test to include the target value (e.g., $23,000), use <=.

=$D4<=23000

Now, any rows in which Column D is equal to $23,000 are also highlighted.

Create Rules With OR, AND

OR Formula

You can create a more complicated rule by incorporating the Excel OR Function to expand the formula to look for two or more values.

1. Enter the formula:
   =OR($C4=”Western”,$C4=”Eastern”)

1. Click on the Format… button and select your desired formatting, and then click OK to return to Excel.

This highlights all rows where the Region is Western or Eastern.

AND Formula

Similarly, you can create a rule using AND. This would mean checking the values in two or more columns.

The formula above checks whether the text in Column C is Northern and the value in the corresponding row in Column D is greater than $23,000.

This conditional formatting rule highlights only the rows where both conditions are met.

IF Formula

You do not necessarily have to add an IF statement to the formula when you are creating it in a conditional formatting rule as the conditional formatting is always going to apply the rule if the formula that you have created returns a true value.

So, for example, this formula:

=IF($C4=”Western”,TRUE,FALSE)

and this formula

$C4=”Western”

both apply the same conditional formatting to your worksheet.

Built-in Excel Functions

Many built-in Excel functions can be used in conditional formatting such as ISBLANK, ISERROR, ISEVEN, ISNUMBER, etc.

ISBLANK Function

You can use the ISBLANK Function to create a rule to find rows that contain blank or empty cells in the worksheet.

1. Highlight the range and then, in the Ribbon, select Home > Conditional Formatting > New Rule.
2. Type in the formula:
   =ISBLANK($E3)

1. Click on the Format… button and select your desired formatting and then click OK to return to Excel.

ISBLANK With OR

You can expand this to include blank cells or cells with an error in them.

1. Type in the formula
   =OR(ISBLANK($E3),ISERROR($E3))

1. Click on the Format… button and select your desired formatting and then click OK to return to Excel.

Other Functions in Conditional Formatting

There are a variety of other functions that can be used in creating conditional formatting formula-based rules.

• COUNTIFS – counts cells that meet a certain condition (useful for highlighting duplicates)
• LARGE – finds the kth largest value
• MAX – finds the largest number
• MIN – finds the smallest number
• MOD – returns the remainder after division (useful for highlighting every other row)
• NOT – changes TRUE to FALSE and vice versa
• NOW – returns the current date and time (useful for conditionally formatting dates and times)
• ROW – returns the number of rows in an array
• SEARCH – searches for a string of text within another string (useful for finding specific text)
• TODAY – returns the current date (useful for applying conditional formatting to dates)
• VLOOKUP – returns the result of a vertical lookup
• WEEKDAY – returns the day of the week
• XLOOKUP – a new, more powerful lookup function

For example, you can use the MAX Function to highlight the row that contains the maximum value in a specified column.

=$D4=MAX($D:$D)

Now, only the row with the maximum value in Column D is highlighted.

If you are struggling to get a formula to work when creating a conditional formatting rule, it is a good idea to test the formula first in your Excel sheet. Once you have it right there, you can incorporate it in your rule.

Conditional Formatting Based on Formula in Google Sheets

Conditional Formatting works much the same in Google Sheets as it does in Excel.

1. Highlight the cells where you want to set the conditional formatting and then, in the Menu, select Format > Conditional formatting.

1. Make sure the Apply to range is correct, and then select Custom formula is from the Format rules drop-down box. Type in the formula.

1. Then, select your formatting style and click Done.

You can also use greater than, greater than or equal to, less than, and less than or equal to in Google Sheets.

AND and OR also work, as well the other functions listed above for Excel (except for XLOOKUP, which does not exist in Google Sheets).