# Database Discussions > Reporting Services >  conditional format column containing blank cells

## darkdusky

I have a Matrix column which I want to conditionally format based on the column group value. This works in most cases but there are some cells in column in which I can not access the column's group value so the conditional format does not work.

The cell uses following expression:
=IIF(Fields!PercentOccupancy.Value IS NOTHING,"0",Fields!PercentOccupancy.Value)

The column group is Matrix1_YearGroup - it's expression is 
=Fields!Year.value

My conditional format expression:
=IIF(Parameters!Year.value(0)=Fields!Year.Value,"B  lack","Red")

in some cases  Fields!Year.value equals blank - so causing conditional expression to fail. 

My question is: can I access the column group value of Matrix1_YearGroup inside the blank cell? It has the correct Year value in the column header so it most know the group value even if Year.value is blank in a particular cell.

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## darkdusky

I found a way to get the Year value of the column even inside blank cells. 
The Year column's title is inside a textbox (automatically generated when I addded the Year Group). I can access this title:
=ReportItems!textbox4.Value in the blank cells so I can make comparison.

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## Island1

We appreciate your posting your solution, for the benefit of others searching for answers along the same lines.  

BTW, I show the use of ReportItems! in several places within the tutorial articles of my Reporting Services series, indexed with my other MS Business Intelligence articles at:

http://www.databasejournal.com/article.php/1459531

Good Luck!

Bill

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