Conditional Formatting or VBA ?

[bamaisgreat]

I currently am using this conditional formatting (applies to =$A$4:$A$20)(formula =AND(A4=J4,A4<>"")
Example:
In A4 I have B3335 and J4 I have B3335 so it turns A4 Orange
The issue Im having is some times J4 may have for example B3335-100 so the formatting will not take place.
I need it were if the cell contains the same data as the other it will do the conditional formatting regardless if its exact. Thanks

If this could be fixed in conditional formatting that would be great. Thanks

 

[bamaisgreat]

I keep working with it. I copied your formula. But im still not getting may J4 to fill.

 

[Joe4]

If you go into cell J4 and pull up Conditional Formatting (go to Manage Rule -> Edit Rule), what formula does it show there?
It should exactly match the formula you have for A4.
If you don't see any formula, then you haven't applied Conditional Formatting to this cell yet!

 

[bamaisgreat]

Thank you all for the help. It works great

 

[bamaisgreat]

Thanks for the help. Can the conditional formatting be adjusted to were the first say five characters had to be the same before the formatting took place ?
Example: G4115 G411 (no Formatting would take place)
G4115 G4115-15 ( Formatting takes place)

 

[Joe4]

Do you mean only apply the formatting to the entry with the extra characters at the end (i.e., the "longer" entry)?
If so, you can just use the LEN function, i.e. add this to condition to the AND part of you Conditional Formatting formula:

in A4: ...,LEN($A4) > LEN($J4)...
in J4: ...,LEN($A4) < LEN($J4)...

 

[bamaisgreat]

ok, is this close to being right?
=AND,LEN($A4)>LEN($J4)(A4<>"",ISNUMBER(FIND(A4,I4)))
were does it decide were the conditional formatting will take place?
Im not very good at explaining.
The idea is for the formatting not to take place untill like the 4th character.
The data that is entered is part numbers, some numbers are Identical up to the 4th character.
Example: (a4) G4115 (j4)G4113 I want to make sure it does not format someting like this. It needs to wait till after the 4th.
Thanks

 

[Joe4]

I don't think you can apply Conditional Formatting to just "part" of an entry in a cell, I think it is an "all or nothing" proposition.
You may be able to use some VBA to get what you want, not sure I have never tried anything like that before. A Google search may be in order.

 

[bamaisgreat]

Ok, Thanks Joe Ill keep Digging