Hi Everyone,

I have a task that I have been doing by hand that is tedious and
inaccurate, and I am hoping a clever reader will be able to help me. I
have several columns of data in an Excel table that I would like to
quickly analyze and determine were the differences are. For example, I
might have 20 rows, and in column 1 I might have 19 'A' and 1 'V'; in
the next column I might have 6 'D', 8 'E', 5 'N', and 1 'Q', etc. What
I do by hand is highlight each change with a different color so that I
can track how and where they change.

Is there a macro that could do this? It is very tedious and time
consuming (not to mention in accurate) for me to do this by hand,
particularly when dealing with several hunderd columns and a 100 or so
rows.

Thank you in advance.

PS I have never written a macro, I just know that they are amazing!

Warm regards,

Eric

This might help: to find differences in two or more columns, hold down
the ctrl button and select entire columns in turn then press:

Ctrl+\ (Edit Goto Special Column Differences).

The cells that are selected are those that differ from the comparison
column i.e. the one that contains the active cell. To remove column
headings from the selection press

Ctrl+Shift+\ (Edit Goto Special Row Differences)

once or as many times as is required. You can then format all the
selected cells in a different colour.


Eric wrote:
Hi Everyone,

I have a task that I have been doing by hand that is tedious and
inaccurate, and I am hoping a clever reader will be able to help me. I
have several columns of data in an Excel table that I would like to
quickly analyze and determine were the differences are. For example, I
might have 20 rows, and in column 1 I might have 19 'A' and 1 'V'; in
the next column I might have 6 'D', 8 'E', 5 'N', and 1 'Q', etc. What
I do by hand is highlight each change with a different color so that I
can track how and where they change.

Is there a macro that could do this? It is very tedious and time
consuming (not to mention in accurate) for me to do this by hand,
particularly when dealing with several hunderd columns and a 100 or so
rows.

Thank you in advance.

PS I have never written a macro, I just know that they are amazing!

Warm regards,

Eric

If you have 3 or fewer conditions you want to apply you can use conditional
formatting, via Formatting--Conditional Formatting.

More than three--then you have to write a macro...

Dave
--
Brevity is the soul of wit.


"Eric" wrote:

Hi Everyone,

I have a task that I have been doing by hand that is tedious and
inaccurate, and I am hoping a clever reader will be able to help me. I
have several columns of data in an Excel table that I would like to
quickly analyze and determine were the differences are. For example, I
might have 20 rows, and in column 1 I might have 19 'A' and 1 'V'; in
the next column I might have 6 'D', 8 'E', 5 'N', and 1 'Q', etc. What
I do by hand is highlight each change with a different color so that I
can track how and where they change.

Is there a macro that could do this? It is very tedious and time
consuming (not to mention in accurate) for me to do this by hand,
particularly when dealing with several hunderd columns and a 100 or so
rows.

Thank you in advance.

PS I have never written a macro, I just know that they are amazing!

Warm regards,

Eric

Hi Lori,

Thank you, that method helps.

Eric
Lori wrote:
This might help: to find differences in two or more columns, hold down
the ctrl button and select entire columns in turn then press:

Ctrl+\ (Edit Goto Special Column Differences).

The cells that are selected are those that differ from the comparison
column i.e. the one that contains the active cell. To remove column
headings from the selection press

Ctrl+Shift+\ (Edit Goto Special Row Differences)

once or as many times as is required. You can then format all the
selected cells in a different colour.


Eric wrote:
Hi Everyone,

I have a task that I have been doing by hand that is tedious and
inaccurate, and I am hoping a clever reader will be able to help me. I
have several columns of data in an Excel table that I would like to
quickly analyze and determine were the differences are. For example, I
might have 20 rows, and in column 1 I might have 19 'A' and 1 'V'; in
the next column I might have 6 'D', 8 'E', 5 'N', and 1 'Q', etc. What
I do by hand is highlight each change with a different color so that I
can track how and where they change.

Is there a macro that could do this? It is very tedious and time
consuming (not to mention in accurate) for me to do this by hand,
particularly when dealing with several hunderd columns and a 100 or so
rows.

Thank you in advance.

PS I have never written a macro, I just know that they are amazing!

Warm regards,

Eric

Hi Dave,

Yes, i have tried the conditioonal formatting with mixed results. It
does save some time, but is still tedious over several hundered
columns.

How would I write a macro to do it? Can you suggest a tutorial?

Thank you,

Eric
Dave F wrote:
If you have 3 or fewer conditions you want to apply you can use conditional
formatting, via Formatting--Conditional Formatting.

More than three--then you have to write a macro...

Dave
--
Brevity is the soul of wit.


"Eric" wrote:

Hi Everyone,

I have a task that I have been doing by hand that is tedious and
inaccurate, and I am hoping a clever reader will be able to help me. I
have several columns of data in an Excel table that I would like to
quickly analyze and determine were the differences are. For example, I
might have 20 rows, and in column 1 I might have 19 'A' and 1 'V'; in
the next column I might have 6 'D', 8 'E', 5 'N', and 1 'Q', etc. What
I do by hand is highlight each change with a different color so that I
can track how and where they change.

Is there a macro that could do this? It is very tedious and time
consuming (not to mention in accurate) for me to do this by hand,
particularly when dealing with several hunderd columns and a 100 or so
rows.

Thank you in advance.

PS I have never written a macro, I just know that they are amazing!

Warm regards,

Eric

This assumes each column is sorted - which your description seems to imply.

Select the second row of data through the last row of data
Make a note of the active cell - say it's A3
Use FormatConditional Formatting
Select "cell value is" "not equal to" and enter =A2 (or what ever cell is
immediately above your active cell)
Click on the format button and go to the pattern tab. Select an appropriate
color and OK your way back to the spreadsheet.

You should see highlights in each column where the value changes


"Eric" wrote:

Hi Everyone,

I have a task that I have been doing by hand that is tedious and
inaccurate, and I am hoping a clever reader will be able to help me. I
have several columns of data in an Excel table that I would like to
quickly analyze and determine were the differences are. For example, I
might have 20 rows, and in column 1 I might have 19 'A' and 1 'V'; in
the next column I might have 6 'D', 8 'E', 5 'N', and 1 'Q', etc. What
I do by hand is highlight each change with a different color so that I
can track how and where they change.

Is there a macro that could do this? It is very tedious and time
consuming (not to mention in accurate) for me to do this by hand,
particularly when dealing with several hunderd columns and a 100 or so
rows.

Thank you in advance.

PS I have never written a macro, I just know that they are amazing!

Warm regards,

Eric

Eric

You have twice mentioned hundreds of columns.

Versions of Excel prior to 2007 have only a maximum of 256 columns.

Are you using 2007 version?

Just curious.................maybe you have rows and columns mixed up?


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

On 6 Nov 2006 13:51:50 -0800, "Eric" wrote:

Hi Dave,

Yes, i have tried the conditioonal formatting with mixed results. It
does save some time, but is still tedious over several hundered
columns.

How would I write a macro to do it? Can you suggest a tutorial?

Thank you,

Eric
Dave F wrote:
If you have 3 or fewer conditions you want to apply you can use conditional
formatting, via Formatting--Conditional Formatting.

More than three--then you have to write a macro...

Dave
--
Brevity is the soul of wit.


"Eric" wrote:

Hi Everyone,

I have a task that I have been doing by hand that is tedious and
inaccurate, and I am hoping a clever reader will be able to help me. I
have several columns of data in an Excel table that I would like to
quickly analyze and determine were the differences are. For example, I
might have 20 rows, and in column 1 I might have 19 'A' and 1 'V'; in
the next column I might have 6 'D', 8 'E', 5 'N', and 1 'Q', etc. What
I do by hand is highlight each change with a different color so that I
can track how and where they change.

Is there a macro that could do this? It is very tedious and time
consuming (not to mention in accurate) for me to do this by hand,
particularly when dealing with several hunderd columns and a 100 or so
rows.

Thank you in advance.

PS I have never written a macro, I just know that they are amazing!

Warm regards,

Eric

Hi Gord,

No, I am using a version prior to 2007, and I divide my columns into
different worksheets to get around the 256 limitation.

What I am looking at are columns of amino acids within a multiple
alignment, so I am really interested in how these change. Thus,
columns that are completely identical are discarded and only those with
variation are highlighted. The problem is that some of the columns
have five or more differences, and I cannot find an easy way to
highlight all of the changes as different colors. Do you have any
ideas?

Thanks,

Eric

Gord Dibben wrote:
Eric

You have twice mentioned hundreds of columns.

Versions of Excel prior to 2007 have only a maximum of 256 columns.

Are you using 2007 version?

Just curious.................maybe you have rows and columns mixed up?


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

On 6 Nov 2006 13:51:50 -0800, "Eric" wrote:

Hi Dave,

Yes, i have tried the conditioonal formatting with mixed results. It
does save some time, but is still tedious over several hundered
columns.

How would I write a macro to do it? Can you suggest a tutorial?

Thank you,

Eric
Dave F wrote:
If you have 3 or fewer conditions you want to apply you can use conditional
formatting, via Formatting--Conditional Formatting.

More than three--then you have to write a macro...

Dave
--
Brevity is the soul of wit.


"Eric" wrote:

Hi Everyone,

I have a task that I have been doing by hand that is tedious and
inaccurate, and I am hoping a clever reader will be able to help me. I
have several columns of data in an Excel table that I would like to
quickly analyze and determine were the differences are. For example, I
might have 20 rows, and in column 1 I might have 19 'A' and 1 'V'; in
the next column I might have 6 'D', 8 'E', 5 'N', and 1 'Q', etc. What
I do by hand is highlight each change with a different color so that I
can track how and where they change.

Is there a macro that could do this? It is very tedious and time
consuming (not to mention in accurate) for me to do this by hand,
particularly when dealing with several hunderd columns and a 100 or so
rows.

Thank you in advance.

PS I have never written a macro, I just know that they are amazing!

Warm regards,

Eric

Eric

Maybe similar to this. Add Cases and colors to suit.

Option Compare Text
Sub colorit()
Dim cel As Range
ActiveSheet.Range("A1:IV100").Select
For Each cel In Selection
Select Case cel.Value
Case Is = "19 'A'": Num = 10 'green
Case Is = "2 'V'": Num = 6 'yellow
Case Is = "6 'D'": Num = 5 'blue
Case Is = "8 'E'": Num = 7 'magenta
Case Is = "1 'Q'": Num = 46 'orange
Case Is = "5 'N'": Num = 3 'red
Case Else: Num = -4142 'no color
End Select
'Apply the color
cel.Interior.ColorIndex = Num
Next cel

End Sub


Gord


On 7 Nov 2006 12:04:48 -0800, "Eric" wrote:

Hi Gord,

No, I am using a version prior to 2007, and I divide my columns into
different worksheets to get around the 256 limitation.

What I am looking at are columns of amino acids within a multiple
alignment, so I am really interested in how these change. Thus,
columns that are completely identical are discarded and only those with
variation are highlighted. The problem is that some of the columns
have five or more differences, and I cannot find an easy way to
highlight all of the changes as different colors. Do you have any
ideas?

Thanks,

Eric

Gord Dibben wrote:
Eric

You have twice mentioned hundreds of columns.

Versions of Excel prior to 2007 have only a maximum of 256 columns.

Are you using 2007 version?

Just curious.................maybe you have rows and columns mixed up?


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

On 6 Nov 2006 13:51:50 -0800, "Eric" wrote:

Hi Dave,

Yes, i have tried the conditioonal formatting with mixed results. It
does save some time, but is still tedious over several hundered
columns.

How would I write a macro to do it? Can you suggest a tutorial?

Thank you,

Eric
Dave F wrote:
If you have 3 or fewer conditions you want to apply you can use conditional
formatting, via Formatting--Conditional Formatting.

More than three--then you have to write a macro...

Dave
--
Brevity is the soul of wit.


"Eric" wrote:

Hi Everyone,

I have a task that I have been doing by hand that is tedious and
inaccurate, and I am hoping a clever reader will be able to help me. I
have several columns of data in an Excel table that I would like to
quickly analyze and determine were the differences are. For example, I
might have 20 rows, and in column 1 I might have 19 'A' and 1 'V'; in
the next column I might have 6 'D', 8 'E', 5 'N', and 1 'Q', etc. What
I do by hand is highlight each change with a different color so that I
can track how and where they change.

Is there a macro that could do this? It is very tedious and time
consuming (not to mention in accurate) for me to do this by hand,
particularly when dealing with several hunderd columns and a 100 or so
rows.

Thank you in advance.

PS I have never written a macro, I just know that they are amazing!

Warm regards,

Eric