I'm trying to have a cell on Sheet A check if it's either > or < the value in a cell on Sheet B, then change its color accordingly. Under the custom formula I use: =A1>("SheetB!A1"), but it doesn't seem to work. I use the color Green for the > and the color Red for the <. Every time the rules are saved it will always display A1 on Sheet A in red.
Is the function wrong? Or is it not possible to have a Conditional Format even search across sheets?
For some reason (I confess I don't really know why) a custom formula in conditional formatting does not directly support cross-sheet references.
But cross-sheet references are supported INDIRECT-ly:
=A1>INDIRECT("SheetB!A1")
or if you want to compare A1:B10 on SheetA with A1:B10 on SheetB, then use:
=A1>INDIRECT("SheetB!A1:B10")
=A1>INDIRECT("SheetB!"&CELL("address",A1))
applied to range A1:B10.
You can do this by referencing the cell and row number in the current sheet, so as you drag-copy that conditional formatting to other rows it will reference the correct cells.
In the below equation I am coloring cells based on the exact same cell in some other sheet named "otherSheetName" in this example. If for example you want to color cell B2 in Sheet2 if the cell B2 in otherSheetName contains the text "I Like Dogs" you would go to cell Sheet2!B2 , click condition formatting, choose equation from the drop down and paste the below equation.
=IF(INDIRECT("otherSheetName!"&ADDRESS(ROW();COLUMN()))="I Like Dogs";1;0)
Comparing strings instead of numbers for a conditional formatting rule, you can use:
=EXACT(A1,(INDIRECT("Sheet2!A1")))
Case sensitive.
There is one trick/bug: if you have conditional formatting in Sheet1 that explicitly references itself (e.g., the formula is Sheet1!$C$2), you can copy the conditional formatting to Sheet2 with Paste special > conditional formatting and it will "work"... as long as you don't touch anything:
if you try to edit the conditional formatting in Sheet2, then you'll get an "Invalid formula" error.
if columns/rows change in Sheet1 such that they affect the conditional formatting (e.g., row/column inserts), this is not reflected in Sheet2 (keep in mind that the indirect trick mentioned by #AdamL will also not reflect column/row updates either, so it's a wash in this respect).
I was able to compare two sheet and highlight the differences on the second sheet using conditional formatting :
=A1<>(INDIRECT("Sheet1!"&Address(Row(),Column(),)))
Related
I'm trying to get a cell to highlight with a certain color if the text of two other cells match. Has anyone else done this?
Example:
If the value in the cell A2 is "Car" and the value "Car" is in a range on another sheet, can the cell B2 be filled with a color?
Assuming a range on another sheet is ColumnC of Sheet2, then select B2, apply the Conditional Formatting custom formula:
=match(A2,indirect("Sheet2!C:C"),0)
and certain colour fill.
This can be achieved using conditional formatting.
Select the cell (B2 in your example) and in the menu bar go to Format > Conditional Formatting...
Here you want to use a custom formula. Specifically for your example, the formula to input would be:
=AND(A2="Car",COUNTIF(C2:C5,"Car")>0)
Note that the range that is being checked for "Car" is C2:C5, since you didn't specify any for your example.
EDIT:
Following the discussion in the comments:
=COUNTIF(Sheet2!$C:$C,A2)>0
What this does, is that it looks for the value in A2 in column C in Sheet2 and if it occurs once or more, the cell that you have applied this conditional formatting to, will be coloured.
I'm trying to apply conditional formatting for cells that are less than value of a previous cell in the same column. For example, if D5 < D4 apply formatting, if D6 < D5 apply formatting, etc down the column.
I created conditional formatting for D5 denoting D4 as =D4 to get it's value. This works, however, when I copy this formatting to the cell below, D6, it does two things:
It does not make a copy of the formatting but updates existing one adding a range (D4,D5).
It still references D4 to check the value against, while I need it to compare against D5.
I'm not sure why D5 is always referenced, since I'm not using absolute reference, but a relative one. I don't see a way to compare with previous cell in the same column other than creating a formatting for each cell. Any pointers?
Found a solution based on another post color red if cell above value is lower:
Select a range where formatting needs to be applied, e.g. D9:D20.
Right click, select Conditional Formatting.
Click "Add new rule"
In "format cells if" choose custom formula is.
Enter formula: =D9
Select desired formatting.
I want to set conditional format rules in my Google spreadsheet. For the format cell, I select "Text contains", then I type values "PA, MA, CT, NY", formatting style I choose red. When I click DONE, the columns containing these words didn't show the color. I don't want to create rules "PA', "MA", "CT"and "NY" one by one. How can I fix them? Thanks for helping.
Select the relevant range (I am assuming starts at A1) and clear any existing CF rules from it. Format, Conditional formatting..., Format cells if... Custom formula is and:
=regexmatch(A1,"PA|MA|CT|NY")
with red fill and Done.
This should format any cells that contain any of the four state abbreviations (that is, both as part of the content of a cell and as all the content of the cell). It should format PACT but being case sensitive not many.
Try using OR with custom formula like this:
=or($A2="PA",$A2="MA",$A2="CT",$A2="NY")
As Ed said, but to clarify,
Go to conditional format and select 'Custom formula'
Assuming that your values are in column A, set the range to A1:A and enter the formula =OR($A:A="PA",$A:A="MA",$A:A="CT",$A:A="NY") in the custom formula field.
If the values are not in column A then change the formula as necessary.
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12TsEEj3LQSIOv2m6LRRS6FCLvIkuUo_ECfQvK4gw4d8/edit?usp=sharing
I want to use conditional formatting to count the amount of times a name appears in Column H and make the corresponding name in Column B red if it shows up once and crossed out if it shows up twice.
How can I do this? I used COUNTIF but I don't know how to attach the formatting to a specific name/string in Column B so it just formats the next one on the list (I think).
Any advice or help would be greatly appreciated.
Clear any conditional formatting from ColumnB, select B3 to the end of your range to format and Format, Conditional formatting..., Format cells if... Custom formula is and
=countif(H:H,B3)=2
with strikethrough. Add another rule (same range) with Custom formula is and
=countif(H:H,B3)=1
with red fill and Done.
I have a sheet where I would like to turn a row a color based on the value of two cells. I already have conditional formatting based on one cell of the cells I want to use for the two cell formatting.
I am using =AND($J:$J="Cancel",$L:$L="Yes") for the two cell formatting but it doesnt seem to work. Not sure if the first one =$J:$J="Cancel" is negating the formatting of the other or if if my formula is just bad.
Any advice would be appreciated.
if the trick is that you want the whole row to be colored that way, then all you need to modify is the "range" to apply it too, so you enter something like the start column and then just give it a row number as the second half of the range, without the column argument: A1:10001
That exact formula you listed =AND($J:$J="Cancel",$L:$L="Yes") worked for me when using the "custom formula" option: