Compare two columns and highlight values in common
A conditional formatting formula highlights values in column B that also exist in column D.
The same thing happens in column D, a conditional formatting formula highlights values in common between column B and D.
How to highlight common values
- Select cell range B3:B7
- Go to tab "Home" on the ribbon if you are not there already
- Click on Conditional Formatting button
- Click on "New Rule..."
- Click on "Use a formula to determine which cells to format"
- Type: = COUNTIF($D$3:$D$7, B3)
- Click on "Format..." button
- Click on "Fill" tab.
- Pick a color
- Click OK
- Click OK
Repeat above steps with column D, the formula is at the top of this article.
Explaining conditional formatting formula
The COUNTIF function counts how many times value in cell B3 is found in cell range $D$3:$D$7. B3 changes to B4 when Excel moves on to next cell below, however, that is not the case with $D$3:$D$7.
The $ dollar signs make this cell reference locked, in other words, it doesn't change.
The Conditional Formatting in Excel interprets all numbers except 0 as TRUE so if the COUNTIF function finds a value twice and returns 2 doesn't matter, it still highlights the cell.
Download excel *.xlsx file
Compare two columns and highlight matches.xlsx
This blog article is one out of five articles on the same subject.
- Filter values existing in range 1 but not in range 2 using array formula in excel
- Filter common values between two ranges using array formula in excel
- How to remove common values between two columns
- How to find common values from two lists
- Highlight common values in two lists using conditional formatting in excel
Weekly Blog EMAIL
Welcome! I am Oscar and here to help you out.Feel free to comment and ask Excel questions.
Make sure you subscribe to my newsletter so you don't miss new blog articles.
Related articles
How to highlight differences in price lists
Today I am going to show you how to quickly compare two tables using Conditional Formatting (CF). I am going […]
Compare two columns and highlight differences
A conditional formatting formula highlights values that only exist in one column. Example, BB and GG exist only in column […]
Compare tables: Highlight records not in both tables
The image above demonstrates a conditional formatting formula that highlights records that only exist in one table. There are two […]
Compare two lists of data: Highlight common records
In this blog post I will demonstrate a conditional formatting formula that will highlight common records in two lists. The […]
Highlight missing values between to columns
The picture above shows two lists. How do I highlight values in List 1 that are not in List 2? […]
Highlight overlapping date ranges using conditional formatting
The image above demonstrates a conditional formatting formula that colors a record if there is at least one record that […]
Count Conditionally Formatted cells
This article explains how to count cells highlighted with Conditional Formatting (CF). The image above shows data in cell range […]
Highlight records based on overlapping date ranges and a condition
adam asks: Hi, I have a situation where I want to count if this value is duplicate and if it […]
Highlight dates in a date range
Question: How do I highlight dates that meet criteria using conditional formatting? Table of contents Highlight values in a column […]
This post demonstrates how to highlight records with the closest value to a criterion, you can also choose to highlight […]
3 Responses to “Compare two columns and highlight values in common”
Leave a Reply
How to comment
How to add a formula to your comment
<code>Insert your formula here.</code>
Convert less than and larger than signs
Use html character entities instead of less than and larger than signs.
< becomes < and > becomes >
How to add VBA code to your comment
[vb 1="vbnet" language=","]
Put your VBA code here.
[/vb]
How to add a picture to your comment:
Upload picture to postimage.org or imgur
Paste image link to your comment.
[…] Highlight common values in two lists using conditional formatting […]
Hai
What a surprise..!
I have visited so many websites, youtube channels for my problem.
I have a excel data that is 2 columns,
column 1 is 2,72,132 records
column 2 is 519 records
I have to highlight or select the records that 519 records which are column no.1
But No body have given correct suggesion.
All are given =Match() or =vlookup() formulas.
but not succeded.
At last your help has given correct result
Thank you for great help which is simple but valuable formula i.e., = COUNTIF($D$3:$D$7, B3).
Thanks once again
.. RAVINDER.
Hi
I have the data in two columns and I want to highlight column B value with using column A value if the value is higher than columns A highlight in column B by using condition formatting.
A B
20.00 3.68
100.00 138.84
85.00 102.70
51.00 2.04
8.00 3.27
10.00 14.00
15.00 10.62
kindly suggest the same.