Thank you both for your input.

I have used instead the find unique option in excel 2007 conditional
formatting.

Cheers

"T. Valko" wrote:

If you're looking for a conditional formatting formula...

=ISNA(MATCH(B3,A:A,0))

Or...

=COUNTIF(A:A,B3)=0

--
Biff
Microsoft Excel MVP


"Gotroots" wrote in message
...
What formula is suitable to determine if a value in 'B' is not present in
A:A

example:

oranges are in B3 but can not be found anywhere in A:A


.