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Data Bars: Explained in Excel Conditional Formatting

18 September 2025 by
Bhoomi Vaghela

How Data Bars work in Excel Conditional Formatting

Excel's Data Bars conditional formatting option inserts horizontal bars inside cells to display the importance of a number in relation to other values within the chosen range. The value increases with the length of the bar.

Key points:

- Visual, not changing the data.

- Access: Home > Conditional Formatting > Data Bars (choose a style).

- Min/Max can be auto, number, percent, or percent of total.

- Useful for quick comparisons across a range.

Blue Data Bar

View  a Blue colored data bar in the cell. The length of the data bar represents the  value in the cell. A longer bar represents a higher value.

Green Data Bar

View  a Green colored data bar in the cell. The length of the data bar represents the  value in the cell. A longer bar represents a higher value.

Red Data Bar

View  a Red colored data bar in the cell. The length of the data bar represents the  value in the cell. A longer bar represents a higher value.

Orange Data Bar

View  a Orange colored data bar in the cell. The length of the data bar represents the  value in the cell. A longer bar represents a higher value.

Light blue Data Bar

View  a Light blue  colored data bar in the cell. The length of the data bar represents the  value in the cell. A longer bar represents a higher value.

Purple Data Bar

View  a Purple  colored data bar in the cell. The length of the data bar represents the  value in the cell. A longer bar represents a higher value.

Click on below link to get further information-

https://olivaa.odoo.com/blog/excel-5/color-scale-format-in-excel-84