Conditional formatting for partial number match.

I'm working on a manual entry on a large document where it will be easy for me to make mistakes if I don't do some highlighting. Here's what I want:

If the first 6 digits of two numbers match, I want to highlight #A:#K of that row.

The numbers are located in Column E, and I'd like to do this all in conditional formatting formula, not adding another cell.

__A B C D E_________ F G H I J K
1 -------------7949460047 - - - - - -
2 -------------7949460054 - - - - - -
3 -------------7868150025 - - - - - -
4 -------------7950430020 - - - - - -
5 -------------7950170071 - - - - - -
6 -------------7950170139 - - - - - -
7 -------------7950170048 - - - - - -
8 -------------7950170097 - - - - - -
9 -------------7950170147 - - - - - -

So in this example, highlighting should happen 1A:2K, 5A:9K

Thanks for your help!

Hi,

The following conditional format (select everything, but ensure a cell in Row 2 is the active cell):

=OR(LEFT($E2,6)=LEFT($E1,6),LEFT($E2,6)=LEFT($E3,6))

You'll have to indicate that it is a Formula by choosing "Formula Is".

S