Often you may want to compare two tables in Excel for differences.
Fortunately this is easy to do using the New Rule feature within the Conditional Formatting options.
The following example shows how to do so.
Example: Compare Two Tables in Excel
Suppose we have the following two tables in Excel that contain information about various basketball players:
Suppose we would like to highlight the differences in corresponding cells between the two tables.
To do so, we can highlight the cell range F2:H11 and then click the Conditional Formatting icon on the Home tab along the top ribbon, then click New Rule from the dropdown menu:
In the new window that appears, click Use a formula to determine which cells to format and then type the following formula in:
=A2<>F2
Then click the Format button and choose a color to use for the conditional formatting.
We’ll choose red:
Lastly, click OK.
Each value in the second table that does not match the corresponding value in the first table is now highlighted in red:
Note: In this example we chose to use a red fill for the conditional formatting of the cells, but you can choose any fill color you’d like.
Additional Resources
The following tutorials explain how to perform other common tasks in Excel:
Excel: How to Highlight Max Value in Each Row
Excel: How to Highlight Cell if Value Exists in List
Excel: How to Highlight Entire Row Based on Cell Value
