Conditional Formatting Data/Time with XLOOKUP

[filenko30]

Hello,

I have two columns, one of which contains a date and time in a "M/D/YY h:mm AM/PM" format, and another that contains the same, but derived via XLOOKUP. I want to enable a conditional formatting function that would look at the two columns and fill in red when the date or time do not match. For example:

1/1/23 12:00 PM	1/1/23 12:00 PM
1/1/23 12:00 PM	2/1/23 12:00 PM
1/1/23 12:00 PM	1/1/23 12:30 PM
1/1/23 12:00 PM	1/1/23 12:00 AM

I have tried "=$A1<>$B1", but it highlights every cell red, I suppose because the second column is derived via XLOOKUP which makes it always non-identical to the first. Is there a function that can compare the values of the cells as seen?

Link to a sample workbook: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1O94EXvDDpQC2reQl0tJkMdhUjkUk4Rz-/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=10407...

[#2]

@filenko30 

Could you attach a small sample workbook demonstrating the problem (without sensitive data), or if that is not possible, make it available through OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox or similar?

[#3]

@HansVogelaar 

I have edited my post to include a drive link showing what I have tried. Thank you!

[#4]

@filenko30 

Thanks.

Columns E/F contain date+time values.

The formulas in columns I and J use the TEXT function, so they return text values. Simply remove TEXT from the formulas:

=IF(XLOOKUP(A2,Sheet1!A:A,Sheet1!E:E,"")="","",XLOOKUP(A2,Sheet1!A:A,Sheet1!E:E,""))

See the attached version.

[#5]

@HansVogelaar 

I could've sworn I tried it without the TEXT function, but I guess I didn't. It seems to work now, thank you for the help!