How do I find the fill colour value of a conditionally formatted cell in Excel 2007 using vba?

Question

I am using a colour scale for my conditional formatting in Excel 2007 and I am having a hard time finding out the fill colour code for the conditionally formatted cells. I know Interior.Color returns the default colour value but that does not help when using conditional formatting. I am relay quite surprised at how hard this has been to do.

Thank you.

Answer 1

You can access the interior color of the fomatting conditions (not what the cell currently is) like so, assuming there this is the first condition applied on the cell:

Range("A1").FormatConditions(1).interior.color

Here's a function that will return the color codes for all the conditional formats a cell contains. It will return nothing if there are no conditions, and if there is a condition but no color is set for it, then it tells you "none".

Function ConditionalColor(ByVal cell As Range)

Dim colors As String
Dim i As Long

For i = 1 To Range(cell.Address).FormatConditions.count
    If Range(cell.Address).FormatConditions(i).Interior.Color <> 0 Then
        colors = colors & "Condition " & i & ": " & _
        Range(cell.Address).FormatConditions(i).Interior.Color & vbLf
    Else
        colors = colors & "Condition " & i & ": None" & vbLf
    End If
Next

If Len(colors) <> 0 Then
    colors = Left(colors, Len(colors) - 1)
End If

ConditionalColor = colors

End Function

UPDATE : In case you are curious (I was), the color code that Excel uses is actually BGR, not RGB. So if you wanted to convert the code to RGB values, you can use this:

Function GetRGB(ByVal cell As range) As String

Dim R As String, G As String
Dim B As String, hexColor As String
hexCode = Hex(cell.Interior.Color)

'Note the order excel uses for hex is BGR.
B = Val("&H" & Mid(hexCode, 1, 2))
G = Val("&H" & Mid(hexCode, 3, 2))
R = Val("&H" & Mid(hexCode, 5, 2))

GetRGB = R & ":" & G & ":" & B
End Function

Answer 2

Hi The answers you have provided did not work because I am using a color scale so it does not return the normal 3 condition values.

After much more searching I found one workaround that works. That is to take the data and put it into word then copy it back into excel making the range go to a true colour in the cell so Interior.Color will work. I found someone that has taken and put it into VBA. Here is the link to it if anyone else is looking to do this.

Answer 3

I don't have an answer that works with Excel 2007 or lower but from Excel 2010 onwards you can use the following (changing the Range to suit):

Range("A1").DisplayFormat.Interior.ColorIndex

Fortunately, whilst the software for which I need it is supported on Excel 2003 onwards, I only actually require it in a test procedure, and the test module is removed from the production versions.

Answer 4

The code below was taken from VBAExpress, all credit too the original author - byundt.

It may need to be modified for excel 2007.

Original Link

Function ConditionalColor(rg As Range, FormatType As String) As Long
     'Returns the color index (either font or interior) of the first cell in range rg. If no _
    conditional format conditions apply, Then returns the regular color of the cell. _
    FormatType Is either "Font" Or "Interior"
    Dim cel As Range
    Dim tmp As Variant
    Dim boo As Boolean
    Dim frmla As String, frmlaR1C1 As String, frmlaA1 As String
    Dim i As Long

     'Application.Volatile    'This statement required if Conditional Formatting for rg is determined by the _
    value of other cells

    Set cel = rg.Cells(1, 1)
    Select Case Left(LCase(FormatType), 1)
    Case "f" 'Font color
        ConditionalColor = cel.Font.ColorIndex
    Case Else 'Interior or highlight color
        ConditionalColor = cel.Interior.ColorIndex
    End Select

    If cel.FormatConditions.Count > 0 Then
         'On Error Resume Next
        With cel.FormatConditions
            For i = 1 To .Count 'Loop through the three possible format conditions for each cell
                frmla = .Item(i).Formula1
                If Left(frmla, 1) = "=" Then 'If "Formula Is", then evaluate if it is True
                     'Conditional Formatting is interpreted relative to the active cell. _
                    This cause the wrong results If the formula isn 't restated relative to the cell containing the _
                    Conditional Formatting--hence the workaround using ConvertFormula twice In a row. _
                    If the Function were Not called using a worksheet formula, you could just activate the cell instead.
                    frmlaR1C1 = Application.ConvertFormula(frmla, xlA1, xlR1C1, , ActiveCell)
                    frmlaA1 = Application.ConvertFormula(frmlaR1C1, xlR1C1, xlA1, xlAbsolute, cel)
                    boo = Application.Evaluate(frmlaA1)
                Else 'If "Value Is", then identify the type of comparison operator and build comparison formula
                    Select Case .Item(i).Operator
                    Case xlEqual ' = x
                        frmla = cel & "=" & .Item(i).Formula1
                    Case xlNotEqual ' <> x
                        frmla = cel & "<>" & .Item(i).Formula1
                    Case xlBetween 'x <= cel <= y
                        frmla = "AND(" & .Item(i).Formula1 & "<=" & cel & "," & cel & "<=" & .Item(i).Formula2 & ")"
                    Case xlNotBetween 'x > cel or cel > y
                        frmla = "OR(" & .Item(i).Formula1 & ">" & cel & "," & cel & ">" & .Item(i).Formula2 & ")"
                    Case xlLess ' < x
                        frmla = cel & "<" & .Item(i).Formula1
                    Case xlLessEqual ' <= x
                        frmla = cel & "<=" & .Item(i).Formula1
                    Case xlGreater ' > x
                        frmla = cel & ">" & .Item(i).Formula1
                    Case xlGreaterEqual ' >= x
                        frmla = cel & ">=" & .Item(i).Formula1
                    End Select
                    boo = Application.Evaluate(frmla) 'Evaluate the "Value Is" comparison formula
                End If

                If boo Then 'If this Format Condition is satisfied
                    On Error Resume Next
                    Select Case Left(LCase(FormatType), 1)
                    Case "f" 'Font color
                        tmp = .Item(i).Font.ColorIndex
                    Case Else 'Interior or highlight color
                        tmp = .Item(i).Interior.ColorIndex
                    End Select
                    If Err = 0 Then ConditionalColor = tmp
                    Err.Clear
                    On Error GoTo 0
                    Exit For 'Since Format Condition is satisfied, exit the inner loop
                End If
            Next i
        End With
    End If

End Function

Answer 5

Easy way: Print screen the spreadsheet. Paste it into paint. Use the pipet tool to find the color. Click Edit color.

BOOM found your RGB information that you can input back into excel