Conditionally formatting cells based on date

Question

I want to have script based formatting to color code date columns.

Row 1 is labels. Cols CE contain dates;these are the cells I want to color format per date. I'm starting with Yellow in the conditional and will add more colors once I'm paste this hurdle.

The hope is to check each cell and color it appropriately. This current version is coloring blocks of cells without reason, apparently by row. All three columns for the range (C2:E9) and (C13:E13) are turning yellow, while C10:E12 and C14:E14 remain normal. Many of the dates across all these ranges are the same.

my code:

 function formatting() { var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getSheetByName('Form Responses'); var columnO = sheet.getRange(2, 3, sheet.getLastRow() - 1, 3);//the range starts at column 3. var oValues = columnO.getValues(); for (var i = 0; i < oValues.length; i++) { for(var j = 2; j <= 4; j++) {//j=2 is actually column 5 //convert dates from GMT to local var thisDay = new Date(); var todayLocal = thisDay.toLocaleString(); var bullDate = new Date(oValues[i][0]); var bullLocal = bullDate.toLocaleString(); if (bullLocal < todayLocal) { sheet.getRange(i + 1, j + 1, 1, 1).setBackgroundColor('yellow'); } } } } 

There are other ways to do this, I think, but trying to be efficient in my code. Ideas?

Answer 1

In your function the range started in column 3 and so oValues[0][0] was actually found at row 1 column3.

try this:

function formatting() {
  var sheet=SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet().getSheetByName('Form Responses');
  var rg=sheet.getDataRange();//this range starts at column 1
  var vA=rg.getValues();
  var today = new Date();
  for(var i=0;i<vA.length; i++){
    for(var j=2;j<=4;j++){//j=2 is the third column
      var bullDate = new Date(vA[i][j]);  
      if (bullDate < today){
        sheet.getRange(i+1,j+1).setBackgroundColor('yellow');
      }
    }
  }
}