Conditionally Formatting Cells Containing Dates

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated February 3, 2024)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365


1

Murali has a large worksheet that contains a variety of different formats. He would like to use conditional formatting to highlight cells that contain dates. He's at a loss, though, as to how to set up the conditional format correctly.

The problem is that Excel doesn't have a worksheet function that returns whether a particular cell contains a date or not. Fortunately, VBA includes such a function, IsDate. This means that you can create a very simple user-defined function to return True or False, depending on whether a cell contains a date:

Function MyIsDate(rCell As Range)
    MyIsDate = IsDate(rCell)
End Function

You can then reference this function in a conditional formatting rule and adjust the formatting based on the results. Remember that this function returns True if the cell contains any date; it does not check for specific dates.

If, for some reason, you don't want to use a macro, you could try this slick little workaround: Set up a conditional formatting rule that relies on the results of a formula. The particular formula you should use is as follows:

=LEFT(CELL("format",A1))="D"

The formula returns the format code used for the cell. (In this case the cell is A1. Change this to reflect the cell you are actually testing.) If the first character of the format code is D, then the formula returns True. Excel uses various format codes that begin with D when you format a cell as a date.

Note:

If you would like to know how to use the macros described on this page (or on any other page on the ExcelTips sites), I've prepared a special page that includes helpful information. Click here to open that special page in a new browser tab.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (11817) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Basing Headers and Footers on the Previous Section

Word treats the headers and footers in a document independently, based on the section in which they appear. This means ...

Discover More

Item Not Available in Library

When sharing workbooks with others, you may find that the macros in those workbooks may not work as you expect. This tip ...

Discover More

Saving Search and Replace Information in a Macro

You may want to save a user's existing Find and Replace settings before changing them in your macro. This tip examines ...

Discover More

Excel Smarts for Beginners! Featuring the friendly and trusted For Dummies style, this popular guide shows beginners how to get up and running with Excel while also helping more experienced users get comfortable with the newest features. Check out Excel 2019 For Dummies today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

Deleting Conditional Formatting

After you've applied a conditional format to a cell, you may have a need to later delete that format so that the cell is ...

Discover More

Conditionally Highlighting Cells Containing Formulas

Excel's conditional formatting feature allows you to create formats that are based on a wide variety of criteria. If you ...

Discover More

Conditional Formatting Based on Date Proximity

Conditional formatting can be used to draw your attention to certain cells based on what is within those cells. This tip ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is two minus 0?

2024-02-03 10:24:54

J. Woolley

The Tip's MyIsDate function works fine for cells with date or date-time but not for cells with time alone. My Excel Toolbox includes the following function returning TRUE if cells in Target include a date or time or both:
    =HasDateTime(Target,[AllCells])
If AllCells is False (default), the result is TRUE if ANY cell in Target represents a date/time; otherwise, the result is TRUE only if ALL cells in Target represent a date/time. AllCells applies only if Target includes more than one cell. Here is an abbreviated version for a single cell:

Function HasDateTime(Target As Range) As Boolean
    Dim V As Variant, S As String, B As Boolean
    V = Target.Value
    S = TypeName(V)
    B = (S = "Date")
    If Not (B Or S = "Boolean" Or S = "Empty" Or S = "Error") Then
        On Error Resume Next
            S = FormatDateTime(V)
            B = (Err = 0)
        On Error GoTo 0
        ' check for numeric standalone time (without date)
        If B And IsNumeric(V) Then B = (TimeValue(S) = S)
    End If
    HasDateTime = B
End Function

See https://sites.google.com/view/MyExcelToolbox/


This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.