excel - Change the color of cells in one column when they don't match cells in another column

Question

I want to check if the values in one column are the same as values in another column. Whenever the values are not the same, I would like to change the color of these cells.

For example:

Column I, Column AA both have the value of a the first month in years from 1318 till 1500 "Arabic Calender" but I want to check which of these values doesn't match and color them with yellow for example.

In this case, both cells in row 3 should have a different color after the checking operation.

Is there a way to do this?

question from:https://stackoverflow.com/questions/22189260/change-the-color-of-cells-in-one-column-when-they-dont-match-cells-in-another-c

Answer 1

1. Select your range from cell A (or the whole columns by first selecting column A). Make sure that the 'lighter coloured' cell is A1 then go to conditional formatting, new rule:

   

2. Put the following formula and the choice of your formatting (notice that the 'lighter coloured' cell comes into play here, because it is being used in the formula):

   =$A1<>$B1
   

   

3. Then press OK and that should do it.