Excel Conditional Formatting Offset Greater than
Solution 1
Edit: I think you would not be able to use conditional formatting this way with icon sets. I got the following error when I tried:
You cannot use relative references in conditional formatting criteria for color scales, data bars, and icon sets.
I was, however, able to achieve the same by applying this formula to right column and then applying conditional formatting rule on this column as show in the screen shot.
=IF(OFFSET(E10,0,-1)>500,1,IF(OFFSET(E10,0,-1)=500,0,-1))
The formula should be:
=OFFSET(E10,0,-1)>500
In Excel, the Offset function returns a reference to a range that is offset a number of rows and columns from another range or cell.
The syntax for the Offset function is:
Offset( range, rows, columns, height, width )
- range is the starting range from which the offset will be applied.
- rows is the number of rows to apply as the offset to the range. This can be a positive or negative number.
- columns is the number of columns to apply as the offset to the range. This can be a positive or negative number.
- height is the number of rows that you want the returned range to be.
- width is the number of columns that you want the returned range to be.
Solution 2
There is a way of achieving the equivalent of Offset in Conditional formatting with relative references.
In the cell you want conditionally coloured, select the conditional formatting option Use a formula to determine which cells to format. In the formula bar use the following syntax:
=INDIRECT(ADDRESS(ROW()+X,COLUMN()-Y))>Z
Here, X
is the vertical offset, Y
is the horizontal offset and Z
is the value against which you are testing.
In the OP's example, it would be:
=INDIRECT(ADDRESS(ROW(),COLUMN()-1))>500
You then just need to define the formatting; you can't have the traffic light symbol but you can set the cell's background or font to be a specific colour.
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nmuntz
Updated on September 17, 2022Comments
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nmuntz over 1 year
I need to create a conditional formatting rule that will apply some color if the cell to the left has a value greater than 500, however it is not accepting my formula:
=OFFSET(0,-1) > 500
Can anyone tell me what am I doing wrong?
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nmuntz almost 14 yearsTried that and it's giving me a "Please enter a valid formula" error.
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nmuntz almost 14 yearsThat worked out great ! Thank you very much! I would have never guessed that you cant use formulas with icon sets