Thanks for your help. I've found that =MATCH offers an even better solution.

"Vasant Nanavati" wrote:

Yes.

If the number is always going to be entered in a specific location, you
could use conditional formatting. If A1:A12 contains your "database" and D12
is where the new entry is going to be, the condition would be:

=OR(D12=$A$1:$A$12)

--

Vasant



"gunga" wrote in message
...
I have a database of 12 different numbers, contained in the same column,
on
12 successive rows.

Does anyome know if Excel is able to check whether a number entered
elsewhere on the worksheet is the same as a number in the database?

Many thanks