Skip to content
Free Excel Tutorials
  • Home
  • Excel For Beginners
  • Excel Intermediate
  • Advanced Excel For Experts

Data Analysis

  • Everything about Charts in Excel
  • How to create a Histogram in Excel
  • Data Series in Excel
  • Excel Line Chart
  • Move chart to a separate worksheet in Excel

References

  • How to get address of first cell in range in Excel
  • Perform case-sensitive Lookup in Excel
  • How to retrieve first match between two ranges in Excel
  • Left Lookup in Excel
  • How to get relative row numbers in a range in Excel

Data Validations

  • Excel Data validation with conditional list
  • Excel Data validation require unique number
  • Excel Data validation whole percentage only
  • Excel Data validation no punctuation
  • Excel Data validation allow weekday only

Conditional formatting column is blank in Excel

by

This tutorial shows how to Conditionally format column is blank in Excel using the example below;

Formula

=OR(A1="",B1="", C1="")

Explanation

To highlight values in one column when values in one or more other columns are blank, you can use the OR function and a basic logical expression to test for blank or empty values. In the example shown, conditional formatting has been applied to the range E5:E14 with this formula:

=OR(B5="",C5="", D5="")

If B5 or C5 or D5 is blank, the formula returns TRUE and triggers the rule.

Note: conditional formatting formulas should be entered relative to the “active cell” in the selection, which is assumed to be E5 in this case.

How this formula works

When conditional formatting is applied with a formula, the formula is evaluated relative to the active cell in the selection at the time the rule is created. In this case, the active cell when the rule is created is assumed to be cell E5, with the range E5:E14 selected.

As the formula is evaluated, formula references change so that the rule is testing for blank values in the correct row for each of the 10 cells in the range:

=OR(B5="",C5="", D5="") // E5
=OR(B6="",C6="", D6="") // E6
=OR(B7="",C7="", D7="") // E7
etc.

If any cell in a corresponding row in column B, C, or D is blank, OR function returns TRUE and the rule is triggered and the green fill is applied. When all tests return FALSE, the OR function returns FALSE and no conditional formatting is applied.

With ISBLANK

of testing for an empty string (=””) directly you can use the ISBLANK function in an equivalent formula like this:

=OR(ISBLANK(B5),ISBLANK(C5),ISBLANK(D5))

AND, OR, NOT

Other logical tests can be constructed using combinations of AND, OR, and NOT. For example, to test for a blank cell in column B and column D, you could use a formula like this:

=AND(B5="",D5="")

This will trigger conditional formatting only when the column B and D are blank.

Post navigation

Previous Post:

COSH function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation

Next Post:

Excel Data validation require unique number

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Learn Basic Excel

Ribbon
Workbook
Worksheets
Format Cells
Find & Select
Sort & Filter
Templates
Print
Share
Protect
Keyboard Shortcuts

Categories

  • Charts
  • Data Analysis
  • Data Validation
  • Excel Functions
    • Cube Functions
    • Database Functions
    • Date and Time Functions
    • Engineering Functions
    • Financial Functions
    • Information Functions
    • Logical Functions
    • Lookup and Reference Functions
    • Math and Trig Functions
    • Statistical Functions
    • Text Functions
    • Web Functions
  • Excel VBA
  • Excel Video Tutorials
  • Formatting
  • Grouping
  • Others

Logical Functions

  • How to use Excel OR Function
  • IF with boolean logic in Excel
  • IF with wildcards in Excel
  • How to use Excel XOR Function
  • Invoice status with nested if in Excel

Date Time

  • How to join date and text together in Excel
  • TIMEVALUE function: Description, Usage, Syntax, Examples and Explanation
  • Get first day of previous month in Excel
  • How to get year from date in Excel
  • Convert Excel time to decimal seconds

Grouping

  • Group arbitrary text values in Excel
  • How to randomly assign data to groups in Excel
  • If cell contains one of many things in Excel
  • How to randomly assign people to groups in Excel
  • Map inputs to arbitrary values in Excel

General

  • Count cells that do not contain many strings in Excel
  • Delete Blank Rows at Once in Excel
  • Mark Workbook as Final in Excel
  • Print Excel Sheet In Landscape Or Portrait
  • Find Most Frequently Occurring Word in Excel Worksheet
© 2025 xlsoffice . All Right Reserved. | Teal Smiles | Abbreviations And Their Meaning