Formatting Problem: Circular Reasoning
 

Hi... new to the forum. It looks like there's lots of good stuff on
here.

Here's my question:

I'm working on a sudoku-solver and having some trouble using
conditional formatting as part of a formula. I'm familiar with using
a

+style(if(current()=0,"Green","Red))

type of of formula, but I'm having trouble working with cells whose
format depend on -eachother.- For example, I have two cells that can
both be either "." or "*" -- and I want to make the "*" cells style RED
-only- if both cells are not "*". In other words, I want the style RED
to be mutually exclusive, so that if both of the cells are "*" then the
style will be GREEN while if only one of the cells is a "*" the style
will be RED. (GREEN is the style for all "." values regardless)

My problem is that when I initiate the formula as...

=...+style(if(current()=E24,"Green","Red))

(where E24 is the 'other' cell)

...then it turns into a circular reasoning problem. If I install the
formula in both cells then it "works" first in whichever cell loads
first. It ends up making that cell RED when both cells have a value of
"*". If I reload the formula from the other cell the formatting
switches but never gets it right.

Does anyone have familiarity working with problems of circular
reasoning in excel or in programming? Or any ideas about how to have
current cell values influence formatting between -eachother?-

Any ideas or links to other resources would be great! Thanks!

Jake
Vail, CO

*note: I use open office calc; it's basically the same as excel as far
as I know (but free)




--
jorlowitz