Understanding Color and Conditional Formatting Codes

In other issues of ExcelTips you learn how formatting codes are used to create custom formats used to display numbers, dates, and times. Excel also provides formatting codes to specify text display colors, as well as codes that indicate conditional formats. These formats only use a specific format when the value being displayed meets a certain criteria.

To understand these codes a bit better, take a look at this format within the Currency category:

$#,##0.00_);[Red]($#,##0.00)

Notice there are two number formats divided by a semicolon. If there are two formats like this, Excel assumes that the one on the left is to be used if the number is 0 or above, and the one on the right is to be used if the number is less than 0. This example results in all numbers having a dollar sign, a comma being used as a thousands separator, amounts less than $1.00 having a leading 0, and negative values being shown in red with surrounding parentheses. The _) part of the left format is used so that positive and negative numbers align properly (positive numbers will leave a space the same width as a right parenthesis after the number).

You are not limited to only two formats, as in this example. You can actually use four formats, each separated by a semicolon. The first is used if the value is above 0, the second is used if it is below 0, the third is used if it is equal to 0, and the fourth is used if the value being displayed is text.

The following table shows the color and conditional formatting codes. As you may have surmised, these codes are used with the formatting codes mentioned at the beginning of this tip as being in other issues of ExcelTips.

Note the COLOR code, where you can specify one of 56 different colors to be used in the format. If you would like additional information on what those 56 different colors are, you can find a helpful table at this address:

http://dmcritchie.mvps.org/excel/colors.htm#colorindex

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2136) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Understanding Color and Conditional Formatting Codes.