How to highlight weekends [Conditional Formatting]
The image above shows conditional formatting applied to cell range C8:C20, it highlights cells containing dates that fall on Saturdays and Sundays.
Conditional formatting formula
How to apply conditional formatting to cell range C3:C20
- Select cell range C3:C20.
- Go to tab "Home" on the ribbon.
- Press with left mouse button on the "Conditional Formatting" button.
- Press with left mouse button on "New Rule.." to open a dialog box.
- Press with left mouse button on "Use a formula to determine which cells to format".
- Type the formula. (See above).
- Press with left mouse button on "Format..." button and choose a formatting.
- Press with left mouse button on OK button twice.
Explaining conditional formatting formula
Step 1 - Identify day of the week
The WEEKDAY function returns 1 to 7 based on a date's day of the week, the second argument tells the function which day a week begins on. Using 2 as the second argument makes the week start on a Monday.
WEEKDAY(C3,2)
becomes
WEEKDAY(43101,2)
and returns 1.
The number calculated by the WEEKDAY function tells us which day of week a date is:
1 - Monday
2 - Tuesday
3 - Wednesday
4 - Thursday
5 - Friday
6 - Saturday
7 - Sunday
Step 2 - Check if the number is larger than 5
The larger than sign checks if the weekday function is larger than 5. If the number is larger than 5 then it must be a Saturday or Sunday, see list above.
WEEKDAY(C3,2)>5
becomes
1>5 and returns FALSE.
Step 3 - Boolean value determines if the cell is highlighted
If the logical expression returns TRUE then the cell is highlighted and FALSE nothing happens.
How to highlight record when a date falls on a weekend
Conditional formatting formula applied to cell range B3:D20
This formula is almost as the first formula, except there is a dollar sign in front of the B (column number). This makes the column absolute meaning the cell reference doesn't change when the Conditional Formatting moves to the next column. It only changes when it moves to a new row.
Example,
| Cell | Formula |
| B3 | =WEEKDAY($B3,2)>5 |
| C3 | =WEEKDAY($B3,2)>5 |
| D3 | =WEEKDAY($B3,2)>5 |
| B4 | =WEEKDAY($B4,2)>5 |
| C4 | =WEEKDAY($B4,2)>5 |
| D4 | =WEEKDAY($B4,2)>5 |
Recommended reading
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