Excel conditional formatting is incredibly useful feature. In this page, let me share 5 simple & creative tricks for you.
If you are a beginner, please read introduction to conditional formatting page.
Trick 1 - Icons, but not too many
Please click on below button to download the Excel file with all these tricks and refer to it when reading the article.
Iconset feature of conditional formatting is great for highlighting important bits of your data. But often then can be overkill. Let’s say you want to use icons to show which products have increased ▲or decreased ▼ their sales. But you don’t want them all the time…
You can do this by setting up upper & lower limit for the conditional formatting rule and creating a 3 icon rule (with no cell icon for middle one).
See this:
Trick 2 - Highlight entire row / column
If you want to highlight which values are above 2000, you can easily apply the greater than… conditional formatting rule. But what if you want to highlight the entire row when certain column has values above 2000?
You can use formula based conditional formatting rules for this.
- Select all your data
- Go to “new rule” on conditional formatting
- Set the rule type to Use a formula to determine which cells to format
- Type the rule as depicted below
- Set formatting options
- Now your row will be highlighted
For ex: D$5>2000 would highlight entire column.
Trick 3 - Advanced Zebra Shading
Zebra shading (highlighting every other row) is proven technique to improve readability of your data. But Excel doesn’t have built-in zebra shading options for non-tabular data. You can use Conditional Formatting rules to add the zebra shading easily. Below is an example of advanced zebra shading.
To add regular zebra shading (highlight alternative rows):
- Select your data and add a new formula based CF rule.
- Type the rule as =ISEVEN(ROW())
- Set the formatting you want
- Apply the rule.
Rule for advanced zebra shading:
- Use the rule like this to highlight 5 rows at a time.
- =ISODD(QUOTIENT(ROW()-ROW(header_row)-1, 5))
Change the header_row to absolute reference of header row cell.
Trick 4 - Highlight dates in next week
Imagine you are tracking a project plan in Excel. you have a bunch of due dates and want to instantly see which items are due next week. You can use relative dates feature of conditional formatting rules to do just that.
- Select the column with dates
- Go to conditional formatting > highlight cells
- Click on “a date occurring” option
- Select the period you want
- Apply the format you need
- Done.
For ex. the rule =AND($D4>TODAY(), $D4<=TODAY()+7) will highlight any rows where column D has a date in next 7 days.
Trick 5 - Databars & Icons in the same cell
Databars are good. Icons are good. Together they are great.
Ever wanted to show an additional icon when databar reaches the goal (say 100%)?
To get them in the same cell,
- Add databar rule
- Set the maximum value of “databar” to twice the target. So 2 for 100%.
- Add icon rule as well. Set the icon to show only when value is 100% and no cell icon for other cases.
- Now, you get both databar and icon in the cell.
Download Example Workbook
Click below button to download the example workbook with all 5 techniques. Examine the rules or use sample data to replicate the ideas.
5 Tricks - Video
If you prefer to see a video with these tricks explained, check it out below or watch it on my YouTube channel.
More Conditional Formatting Tricks
Conditional formatting is a must have for any advanced Excel user. Please learn more about this powerful feature by reading these examples.
24 Responses
I’d suggest simply using the subtotal function and filtering the data using the Win/Loss column. You get the same results and the formula is more comprehensible.
@John
That is one option.
There are times however when you want to see the whole data table or a filtered subset and still want to produce summary reports against an unfiltered field.
Is there a particular reason why you are using a comma and the unary (–) operator for the second array in the SUMPRODUCT formula? It seems to work the same if you were to string the arrays together using the asterisk (*). The advantage is that SUMPRODUCT treats the entire string of arrays as a single array.
@Mathew
Your correct, There is no difference.
I thought it may have been easier to explain this method.
Is there a way to do this on a large set of data? As in ~100,000 rows? When I try I get an error because the formula becomes too long. It says the max length of a formula is 8,192 characters. Excel 2010.
How do I incorporate a specific text within a cell for the second array. For instance, – -(C7:C13=”Apple”)
when I chose a specific text the formula does not work.
@RB
I am not sure what is the issue as if I use the sample data in the post the following work fine
Count:
=SUMPRODUCT(SUBTOTAL(3,OFFSET(C7:C13,ROW(C7:C13)-MIN(ROW(C7:C13)),,1)), –(C7:C13=”L”))
Sum:
=SUMPRODUCT(SUBTOTAL(3,OFFSET(C7:C13,ROW(C7:C13)-MIN(ROW(C7:C13)),,1)),(C7:C13=”L”)*(D7:D13))
You may want to check that there are no leading or trailing spaces in your list of Apples
I should have given a better explanation. Heres my situation. I have a column with cells filled with names like Column 1, Column 2, Pier 1, Pier 2, etc. If the cell just contained Pier and searched for that it works. But because it has other characters in the cell its not recognizing the pier. So how can I extract specific characters of a string of text in this formula?
Hopefully this was a better explanation
Hello-
This formula works pretty well for me except that it slow down excel and prevents some of my macros from working. I was wondering if there was a way to program this in VBA so that excel isn’t always trying to recalculate it. I would like to use a push of a button to get it to run then paste in a cell.
Thanks!
I am trying to sum filtered data in a column, but would want to ignore the negative values in the column. How to go about doing this?
@Akshay
Why not just add a filter to that column to only show the values greater than zero?
The negative values are required for reporting purposes, but their effect on the total is distorting the required output. Please advise.
@Akshay
I’d suggest making a post in the Chandoo.org Forums
http://forum.chandoo.org/
Attach a sample file to simplify the task
I have this working for counting and summing, however, I have a list and for the second array, I need a criteria. That is, I’m looking for b13:b200=”01.??.??” or =left((a1,2) or something like that. These types of criteria matches do not appear to work as I get a blank as a result.
Thanks!
@Bob
As your formula b13:b200=”01.??.??” looks like you are trying to check the first day of the month of the range
What about trying Day(B13:B200)=1
Hai Experts,
i understood this formula well and working fine in MS Excel 2013
but when the same am trying to place in google Spreadsheet it shows error as
“SUMPRODUCT has mismatched range sizes. Expected row count: 1. column count: 1. Actual row count: 2014, column count: 1.” and as a result #VALUE! Appears in cell.
Can anyone please help me how would i get it done in Google Spread sheet
or is there any other formula as a substitute for this.
Thank you very much.
thanks for providing this.. but why does excel keeps on prompting Circular referencing in cell D3?
@Vivek
I don’t know
I just downloaded the file and it is working fine and not showing that error
Goto the Formulas, Calculation Options Tab and check that Calculation is set to Automatic
What version of Excel and Windows are you using ?
I know that this forum is for MS Excel, but I am trying to help someone who is working in Google Sheets. The below formula works in Excel but Google Sheets returns:
“SUMPRODUCT has mismatched range sizes. Expected row count: 1. column count: 1. Actual row count: 39000, column count: 1.” and as a result #VALUE! Appears in cell.
This is the same problem asked by Srichirin above. Does anyone know if there is a formula for Google Sheets that will replicate what MS Excel does?
=SUMPRODUCT(SUBTOTAL(3,OFFSET($C$6:$C$39500,ROW($C$6:$C$39500)-MIN(ROW($C$6:$C$39500)),,1)),- -($C$6:$C$39500=H1),($D$6:$D$39500))
Trying to find a SUMPRODUCT formula that counts the word Closed by date for the last 7 days in a filtered list.
=COUNTIF(M:M,”>”&TODAY()-7) works ok for unfiltered count Column M contains Closure dates (blank if open) and Column L is Status Open or Closed
@ Terry
Please ask the question at the Chandoo.org Forums
https://chandoo.org/forum/
Please attach a sample file to ensure a quicker more accurate answer
I used this formula and worked like a charm! But, now I’ve been requested to use it but adding not one but two criteria in the same formula. For instance the sum I was doing added negative and positive numbers. I’ve been asked to use the exact same formula but adding that only positive numbers were considered… any idea on how to do this?
How exactly do you do sum filtered cells when two criteria are need not just one?
Thank you so much brother literally I have been struggling since morning to get the sum of the filtered category, however, after reading your blog attentively i got my solution, so thanks a lot once again.