This is second part of 2 part series on conditionally formatting dates in excel.
In yesterday’s post we have learned how to conditionally format dates using excel. In this article, you will learn how to use these conditional formatting tricks to highlight repeat customers in a list of sales records.
The problem: Highlighting repeated customers in a list
Let us say you run a small retail store. And you want to give special discounts to all the repeat customers.
Repeat customer is someone who bought at least twice from you in last 30 days. (If the person bought twice but the gap between 2 purchases is more than 30 days they are not repeat customers).
The Data:
Let us assume your sales data has these 2 columns – customer ID and purchase date. I have shown first few rows here. Let us assume the data is in the range B4:C53.
Finding if a customer is repeat – The Formula:
If we just want to highlight without considering the purchase dates,
we can use a simple formula like =COUNTIF($B4:$B53,$B3)>1 in the conditional formatting applied over the range B4:C53.
But we need to consider the date as well,
hmm, now that is tricky !??
May be time for a sip of that coffee. Go take it, I am waiting..,
How about the SUMPRODUCT? We all know that sumproduct formula can be used to test more than one condition.
The formula:
=IF(C4>TODAY()-30,IF(SUMPRODUCT(--($B$4:$B$53=B4),--($C$4:$C$53>(TODAY()-30)))>1,"R","N"),"N")
Now that is one lengthy badass formula. Like Sergeant Martin Riggs. Bad, but still cool.
So what is this formula really doing? It is going to give us “R” if a customer is repeat and “N” if not. See this explanation to understand how it works.
Note: the double dashes “–” make the values as 0s and 1s from a bunch of “trues” “falses”. To know why sumproduct is such a beautiful and robust formula look no further.
The Conditional Formatting
Now that you have figured out the formula to determine a customer is repeat or not, applying conditional formatting is a piece-o-cake.
Just select the range B4:C53, go to conditional formatting and select “formula” option. Now specify the above formula and check if its output is “R” and apply formatting.
I am not telling you how to do this. It is your homework. Go figure!
That is all. Your workbook now highlights repeat customers in the last 30 days. Remember, as you reopen the file a week later, the highlighting logic changes since the date has changed.
Download the example workbook
Click here to download the example workbook and understand how to highlight repeat customers using conditional formatting. The file works in Excel 2003+.
What is your experience?
Share your tips and ideas on using conditional formatting with dates. What are the situations you usually face and how to solve them? I am never too old for this, so please share.
23 Responses to “Learn Top 10 Excel Features”
What it looks like if excel without formula?? 🙂
It would be not excel it would just be fancy tables in which you could just use power point. (Chandoo) would Access be an alternative?
Awesome piece of work!!!
Great article.
Chandoo - my biggest interest in the article was the awesome word-graphic at the top - where did you go to get it done into a shape?
@Rich.. thank you. I used http://www.tagxedo.com/ to generate this word cloud. I took all the comments in the original post, pasted them in tagxedo website and set up the shape etc.
Awesome Chandoo.. You need always needs coffee to start up with. BTW , how did u created the Heart Shaped picture filled with High Repetitive text in it .. Please put it on your Next blog ...
Chandoo, good article. I’ve added a link to it from Connexion – our collection of the most useful and interesting spreadsheet-related articles from the web. See http://www.i-nth.com/resources/connexion
Hi,
Just one small question. Where the hell have been I in the past for not discovering this website sooner?
I've lost a job interview recently where even though I had the subject knowledge, I was not upto their mark in Excel.
Thank you for all the free tips, guidance and for creating this forum environment.
[PS: I've just been through the site for the 1st time, and have signed up for the newsletter. You can expect pretty stupid questions from me soon]
Hy Chandoo, you always inspire me with to explore something new in excel. This data structure table is only for excel 2007 or compatible to 2010. I recently installed latest excel version 2013 in my System and experience problems regarding operating according to previous one. I'm waiting your article relates to that excel version.
Thanks
Awesome article Mr. Chandoo and that is a awesome heart shaped pic you created. Great tips as well.
[...] Learn Top 10 Excel Features | Chandoo.org – Learn Microsoft Excel Online. [...]
Chandoo is awesome..
Thanks, i got better, And i always get 90.50 in my grade card but now i get 96.50 i improved because of the tutorials you gave, Thank You Very Much Chandoo Guy.
Hi chandoo, i am intersted in seeing the video or step by step done procedure of analysing the comments and presenting in the data percentage steps. I think this one would be first step in finding out how generally happens data calculation. Thank you.
As well i would like to know how to get that black shape art of your face which i see in chandoo. I am interested in making it for me.
Nice to see the features considered by Excel users to be most useful. It might be a good idea to also analyze StackOverflow Excel questions to see what keywords appear most often.
Here are my top 10 Excel Features (for advanced users):
http://www.analystcave.com/excel-10-top-excel-features/
Thanks a ton for this it totally helped with my homework ????
Very good effort
Thank you for this. Lots of learning in the links you've provided for this septuagenarian.
Pls send me new post
Dude, your humor ? ?
Loved your work.
Hello Sir,
I am Sanjeev Khakre and i from Indore City, India , I am your big follower and i have watch your videos and learnt a lots of excel trick or function and many more . thanks so much for all of your excellent support.
Your excel knowledge is real awesome.
Thanks
Sanjeev
Your work is excellent but pls willing to know more details about the features of microsoft excel
Chandoo Would Access be a better alternative than VB?