Hi Will,
You cannot do that with a formula in the cell.

If you can calculate the color you can use
Conditional Formatting, which would be the
most efficient.
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/condfmt.htm
Conditional Formatting is limited to a choice of 3
colors (besides original default). Though you
Bob Phillip's macro to that looks like the builtin
use -- there is a link on the above page.

Otherwise, to get the color of another cell you would
have to use a User Defined Function, which is not
going to be efficient but if you've worked yourself
into a corner it will help see Chip Pearson's
Functions For Working With Cell Colors
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/colors.htm


Some more information on Colors in Excel
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/colors.htm
---
HTH,
David McRitchie, Microsoft MVP - Excel
My Excel Pages: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/excel.htm
Search Page: http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/search.htm

"Will Doss" <Will wrote in message ...
I need formula that would also include any fill colors or patterns that might
be in the original cell. thanks