Set Conditional Formats of Excel and ODS files.

Introduction

Conditional formatting is an advanced Microsoft Excel feature that allows you to apply formats to a cell or range of cells and have that formatting change depending on the value of the cell or the value of a formula. For example, you can have a cell appear bold only when the value of the cell is greater than 500. When the value of the cell meets the condition, the specified format is applied to the cell. If the value of the cell does not meet the format condition, the cell’s default formatting is used. In Microsoft Excel, select Format, then Conditional Formatting to open the Conditional Formatting dialog.

Aspose.Cells supports applying conditional formatting to cells at runtime. This article explains how. It also explains how to calculate the color used by Excel for color scale conditional formatting.

Applying Conditional Formatting

Aspose.Cells supports conditional formatting in several ways:

• Using designer spreadsheet
• Using the copy method.
• Creating conditional formatting at runtime.

Using Designer Spreadsheet

Developers can create a designer spreadsheet that contains conditional formatting in Microsoft Excel and then open that spreadsheet with Aspose.Cells. Aspose.Cells loads and saves the designer spreadsheet, keeping any conditional formatting setting.

Using the Copy Method

Aspose.Cells allows developers to copy conditional format settings from one cell to another in the worksheet by calling the Range.Copy() method.

// For complete examples and data files, please go to https://github.com/aspose-cells/Aspose.Cells-for-.NET
// The path to the documents directory.
string dataDir = RunExamples.GetDataDir(System.Reflection.MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().DeclaringType);

// Creating a file stream containing the Excel file to be opened
FileStream fstream = new FileStream(dataDir + "Book1.xlsx", FileMode.Open);

// Opening the Excel file through the file stream
Workbook workbook = new Workbook(fstream);

// Accessing the first worksheet in the Excel file
Worksheet worksheet = workbook.Worksheets[0];

// Copying conditional format settings from cell "A1" to cell "B1"
//worksheet.CopyConditionalFormatting(0, 0, 0, 1);

int TotalRowCount = 0;

for (int i = 0; i < workbook.Worksheets.Count; i++)
{
    Worksheet sourceSheet = workbook.Worksheets[i];

    Range sourceRange = sourceSheet.Cells.MaxDisplayRange;

    Range destRange = worksheet.Cells.CreateRange(sourceRange.FirstRow + TotalRowCount, sourceRange.FirstColumn,
          sourceRange.RowCount, sourceRange.ColumnCount);

    destRange.Copy(sourceRange);

    TotalRowCount = sourceRange.RowCount + TotalRowCount;
}
            

// Saving the modified Excel file
workbook.Save(dataDir + "output.xls");

// Closing the file stream to free all resources
fstream.Close();

Applying Conditional Formatting at Runtime

Aspose.Cells lets you both add and remove conditional formatting at runtime. The code samples below show how to set conditional formatting:

1. Instantiate a workbook.
2. Add an empty conditional format.
3. Set the range that the formatting should apply to.
4. Define the formatting conditions.
5. Save the file.

After this example comes a number of other smaller examples that show how to apply font settings, borders settings, and patterns.

Microsoft Excel 2007 added more advanced conditional formatting that Aspose.Cells also support. The examples here, illustrate how to use simple formatting, the Microsoft Excel 2007 examples show how to apply more advanced conditional formatting.

// For complete examples and data files, please go to https://github.com/aspose-cells/Aspose.Cells-for-.NET
// The path to the documents directory.
string dataDir = RunExamples.GetDataDir(System.Reflection.MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().DeclaringType);

string filePath = dataDir + "Book1.xlsx";

// Instantiating a Workbook object
Workbook workbook = new Workbook();
Worksheet sheet = workbook.Worksheets[0];

// Adds an empty conditional formatting
int index = sheet.ConditionalFormattings.Add();
FormatConditionCollection fcs = sheet.ConditionalFormattings[index];

// Sets the conditional format range.
CellArea ca = new CellArea();
ca.StartRow = 0;
ca.EndRow = 0;
ca.StartColumn = 0;
ca.EndColumn = 0;
fcs.AddArea(ca);

ca = new CellArea();
ca.StartRow = 1;
ca.EndRow = 1;
ca.StartColumn = 1;
ca.EndColumn = 1;
fcs.AddArea(ca);

// Adds condition.
int conditionIndex = fcs.AddCondition(FormatConditionType.CellValue, OperatorType.Between, "=A2", "100");

// Adds condition.
int conditionIndex2 = fcs.AddCondition(FormatConditionType.CellValue, OperatorType.Between, "50", "100");

// Sets the background color.
FormatCondition fc = fcs[conditionIndex];
fc.Style.BackgroundColor = Color.Red;

// Saving the Excel file
workbook.Save(dataDir + "output.xls");

Set Font

// For complete examples and data files, please go to https://github.com/aspose-cells/Aspose.Cells-for-.NET
// The path to the documents directory.
string dataDir = RunExamples.GetDataDir(System.Reflection.MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().DeclaringType);

// Create directory if it is not already present.
bool IsExists = System.IO.Directory.Exists(dataDir);
if (!IsExists)
    System.IO.Directory.CreateDirectory(dataDir);

// Instantiating a Workbook object
Workbook workbook = new Workbook();

// Adding a new worksheet to the Excel object
int i = workbook.Worksheets.Add();

// Obtaining the reference of the newly added worksheet by passing its sheet index
Worksheet worksheet = workbook.Worksheets[i];

// Accessing the "A1" cell from the worksheet
Aspose.Cells.Cell cell = worksheet.Cells["A1"];

// Adding some value to the "A1" cell
cell.PutValue("Hello Aspose!");

// Obtaining the style of the cell
Style style = cell.GetStyle();
// Setting the font weight to bold
style.Font.IsBold = true;
// Applying the style to the cell
cell.SetStyle(style);

// Saving the Excel file
workbook.Save(dataDir + "book1.out.xls", SaveFormat.Excel97To2003);

You can only change font style, text color, underline style, and strikeout style.

Set Border

// For complete examples and data files, please go to https://github.com/aspose-cells/Aspose.Cells-for-.NET
public static void Run()
{
    // The path to the documents directory.
    string dataDir = RunExamples.GetDataDir(System.Reflection.MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().DeclaringType);

    // Instantiating a Workbook object
    Workbook workbook = new Workbook();
    Worksheet sheet = workbook.Worksheets[0];

    // Adds an empty conditional formatting
    int index = sheet.ConditionalFormattings.Add();
    FormatConditionCollection fcs = sheet.ConditionalFormattings[index];

    // Sets the conditional format range.
    CellArea ca = new CellArea();
    ca.StartRow = 0;
    ca.EndRow = 5;
    ca.StartColumn = 0;
    ca.EndColumn = 3;
    fcs.AddArea(ca);
    // Adds condition.
    int conditionIndex = fcs.AddCondition(FormatConditionType.CellValue, OperatorType.Between, "50", "100");
    // Sets the background color.
    FormatCondition fc = fcs[conditionIndex];
    fc.Style.Borders[BorderType.LeftBorder].LineStyle = CellBorderType.Dashed;
    fc.Style.Borders[BorderType.RightBorder].LineStyle = CellBorderType.Dashed;
    fc.Style.Borders[BorderType.TopBorder].LineStyle = CellBorderType.Dashed;
    fc.Style.Borders[BorderType.BottomBorder].LineStyle = CellBorderType.Dashed;

    fc.Style.Borders[BorderType.LeftBorder].Color = Color.FromArgb(0, 255, 255);
    fc.Style.Borders[BorderType.RightBorder].Color = Color.FromArgb(0, 255, 255);
    fc.Style.Borders[BorderType.TopBorder].Color = Color.FromArgb(0, 255, 255);
    fc.Style.Borders[BorderType.BottomBorder].Color = Color.FromArgb(255, 255, 0);
    workbook.Save(dataDir + "output.xlsx");
}

You can only use thin line styles to the outline border. Diagonal lines are not allowed.

Set Pattern

// For complete examples and data files, please go to https://github.com/aspose-cells/Aspose.Cells-for-.NET
// The path to the documents directory.
string dataDir = RunExamples.GetDataDir(System.Reflection.MethodBase.GetCurrentMethod().DeclaringType);

// Instantiating a Workbook object
Workbook workbook = new Workbook();
Worksheet sheet = workbook.Worksheets[0];

// Adds an empty conditional formatting
int index = sheet.ConditionalFormattings.Add();
FormatConditionCollection fcs = sheet.ConditionalFormattings[index];

// Sets the conditional format range.
CellArea ca = new CellArea();
ca.StartRow = 0;
ca.EndRow = 5;
ca.StartColumn = 0;
ca.EndColumn = 3;
fcs.AddArea(ca);

// Adds condition.
int conditionIndex = fcs.AddCondition(FormatConditionType.CellValue, OperatorType.Between, "50", "100");
FormatCondition fc = fcs[conditionIndex];
fc.Style.Pattern = BackgroundType.ReverseDiagonalStripe;
fc.Style.ForegroundColor = Color.FromArgb(255, 255, 0);
fc.Style.BackgroundColor = Color.FromArgb(0, 255, 255);

workbook.Save(dataDir + "output.xlsx");

Advance topics

• Adding 2-Color Scale and 3-Color Scale Conditional Formattings
• Apply Advanced Conditional Formatting
• Apply Conditional Formatting in Worksheets
• Apply Shading to Alternate Rows and Columns with Conditional Formatting
• Generate Conditional Formatting DataBars Images
• Get Icon Sets, Data Bars or Color Scales Objects used in Conditional Formatting