Quick question on advanced excel conditional formatting

November 9, 2017 11:53 AM

I have a list of leads on Column A. I have a list of attendees to a conference. I want to highlight matching names so I can sort by color. for example ABC company is on A25. ABC company will be attending the conference and their name appears on B44. I want B44 to highlight in Yellow (and of course, do this for all matching entries). Thanks!
posted by FireStyle to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

On a new column, I would do a CountIF statement, in this case CountIF(B:B,A25). Then do a conditional formating statement which looks for values greater than 0.
posted by munchingzombie at 11:58 AM on November 9, 2017 [1 favorite]

Best answer: You don't need a new column since Conditional Formatting can read a formula. This formula works for me: =COUNTIF($A:$A,B1)=1 This page gives detailed instructions.
posted by soelo at 12:32 PM on November 9, 2017 [2 favorites]

Response by poster: Fantastic, thanks!
posted by FireStyle at 12:39 PM on November 9, 2017

soelo has it. Just make sure you're applying the conditional formatting to the entire column. If not, replace B1 with the top cell in the range you're conditional formatting. Also, if you have duplicates in column A, change =1 to >=1.
posted by noneuclidean at 12:40 PM on November 9, 2017