To compare whether two cells contain equal values, whether numbers or text, in Excel you can use
<>. E.g., to take some action,
such as changing the background color of a cell, C3, if it
does contain the same data as another cell, B3, I could
use a formula of =B3<>C3. E.g., Suppose I have two
columns, B and C, containing values I wish
to compare and wish to change the background color of a cell in column
C to pink whenever it does not match the value in the adjacent B cell,
so that I can easily scan the spreadsheet to find all instances where
the values differ. The first row is a heading row and the second row is
blank with the data starting in the third row as shown below: | A | B | C | D | E |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Sensor | 1st Reading | 2nd Reading | Checked |
| 2 | ||||
| 3 | Alpha | 32 | 32 | 9/3/13 |
| 4 | Beta | 35 | 37 | 9/3/13 |
| 5 | Delta | 36 | 33 | 9/3/13 |
| 6 | Epsilon | 38 | 34 | 9/3/13 |
| 7 | Gamma | 38 | 38 | 9/3/13 |
In Microsoft Excel 2008 for Mac,
to have the background color of cells in column C change to pink whenever
the value does not match the adjacent value in column B, I can click on
cell C3, the first cell in column C to contain data, then
click on Format then select Conditional Formatting.
I can then for Condition 1, change "Cell Value Is" to "Forumula Is"
and use =B3<>C3 for the formula. I can then click on the
Format button, select Patterns, and pick the color I want
for the cell background and click on OK.
If I click on OK again, the conditional formatting is set for
cell C3. To copy it to all the cells below in the column, I can hit
Command-C on a Mac (the equivalent to Control-C on a
Microsoft Windows system) to copy the cell. I can then click on the
cell immediately below and drag downwards until all of the cell from
C4 to the bottom of the column are highlighted. I can then click on
Edit and select Paste Special. If I then select
Formats from the Paste section and click on OK,
the conditional formatting will be applied to all cells with data in column
C so that any that don't match their adjacent neighbor in column B will have
a pink background.
