Why advanced rules highlight patterns in Google Sheets - Formula Trace Breakdown

Sample Data

This data shows sales numbers in column A. Column B will show if the sales number is above 150 using an advanced conditional formatting rule.

Cell	Value
A1	Sales
A2	100
A3	150
A4	200
A5	120
B1	Highlight
B2
B3
B4
B5

Formula Trace

=A2>150

Step 1: A2

Step 2: 100 > 150

Cell Reference Map

    A       B
1 | Sales | Highlight |
2 |  100  |           |
3 |  150  |           |
4 |  200  |           |
5 |  120  |           |

The formula references cell A2 to check if the sales value is greater than 150.

Result

    A       B
1 | Sales | Highlight |
2 |  100  |  FALSE    |
3 |  150  |  FALSE    |
4 |  200  |  TRUE     |
5 |  120  |  FALSE    |

The formula applied down column B shows TRUE only for sales values above 150, highlighting the pattern of higher sales.

Sheet Trace Quiz - 3 Questions

What does the formula =A2>150 check?

A If the sales value in A2 equals 150

B If the sales value in A2 is less than 150

C If the sales value in A2 is greater than 150

D If the sales value in A2 is empty

Key Result

A conditional formula compares each cell value to a threshold to highlight values above that threshold.