Highlight a cell if the date in one column is the latest date

Question

I'm trying to figure out the proper conditional formatting formula to hilight a cell based on the date in that cell (and/or an adjascent one) representing the most recent date in the column.

Given data like this:

1/1/2011    v1
2/2/2015    v2
4/1/2010    c2
2/2/2015    d5

it would highlight rows 2 and 4, and optionally both columns A and B.

So basically the idea is a conditional format if the date in column A= the latest date of the range A1:A4

I'd like to see a variation that will work on just a single column or multiple columns based on the date in one column.

Answer 1

Apply to range A1:B conditional formatting based on custom formula

=$A1=MAX($A$1:$A)

The formula =X=Y returns 1 (true) is X=Y, and 0 (False) otherwise. So, formatting is applied (to both A and B) if the value in A column is equal to the maximal value in A column, as you wanted.

The dollar signs (absolute references) are needed so that as the formatting propagates throughout both columns, the references are still made to column A.

If there is a header row, adjust accordingly, applying

=$A2=MAX($A$2:$A)

to the range A2:B.

You can make this work on a single column or more than two columns: just change the range of formatting. The formatting formula should be written as it is to be applied to the upper left corner of the range.