Conditionally Formatting Non-Integers

Makik has a list of numeric values. Some are integers; some have digits to the right of the decimal. He would like to use conditional formatting to highlight those values that have digits to the right of the decimal point.

There are a large number of ways that this can be done, and a number of different approaches. I won't go into how to define a conditional format here; such information has already been covered in other issues of ExcelTips. Instead I'll focus on the condition itself and how you should select the condition to test.

If you know that the list will only contain numeric values, then you could use any number of formulas to determine whether the value is a non-integer. These are just a few that can be used if you specify that the condition contains a formula:

• =MOD(A1,1)>0
• =A1<>INT(A1)
• =A1-INT(A1)>0
• =NOT(A1=INT(A1))
• =(A1-TRUNC(A1))>0
• =ABS(A1)-INT(ABS(A1))>0
• =IF(FIND(".",A1),1,0)
• =(A1-(ROUNDDOWN(A1,0))>0)

The various formulas (and there could be many more listed) basically check to see if the unaltered value in the cell is equal to a version that makes sure there is nothing to the right of the decimal.

If you prefer (for some reason) to not rely upon a formula to define your condition, then you can choose "cell value is greater than" and set the condition as ROUNDDOWN(A1,0). You could also use "not equal to" in the condition and you could change ROUNDDOWN to ROUNDUP. Either way, you are testing to determine whether a rounded version of the number (rounded to the nearest integer) is equal to the original value or not.

You should note that any integer value in your list is formatted with decimal places, then such a value won't be "caught" by these conditional formats. For instance, if a cell contains the value 41 but the cell is formatted to display the value as 41.00, that value won't be "marked" by the conditional format as having something to the right of the decimal point. The reason is that the value really is an integer; it is just the display that adds the decimal point and two zeros.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (8482) 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: Conditionally Formatting Non-Integers.