Suppose there is an empty excel sheet. Enter formula "=A1" into the B1 cell. The value of B1 would be 0.
My question is: why the value of B1 becomes zero when referring to an empty cell A1? Any rationales Excel behaves this way?
Thanks.
That is because the formula in B1 returns the value of cell A1.
Excel assigns the value 0 to a blank cell.
To distinguish 0 from blank, in B1 enter:
=IF(A1="","",A1)
FWIW, force a zero-length string with =A1&"". This can also be used to show (an apparently blank) cell when a VLOOKUP of INDEX/MATCH wants to return a zero after encountering a blank cell to return. Two caveats: first, a zero-length string is not truly blank and second, if used with VLOOKUP(...)&"" then any true number that should have been returned as a true number becomes text-that-looks-like-a-number. – Jeeped
Quoting the best answer so I can vote on it :)
I changed my application to =formula&"" according to Jeeped, and works great. Kinda dumb that Index returns Value(formula).
i have a row with three cell each one contains formula and all formula result is blank, my question how can i use if formula to have the following result?
- in case all 3 cell blank ---> (0)
in case one or two cell have value (not blank) ---> (33)
Regards,
Use:
=IF(OR(LEN(A1:C1)>0),33,0)
Not 0 or Not ""?
A blank cell is a cell that doesn't contain anything. Since there is
a formula in those cells, you are probably asking if the value is 0
or "". Maybe both.
If you mean blank as in value 0:
If you will treat an error value as a value then use the following:
=IFERROR(IF(AND(A1=0,B1=0,C1=0),0,33),33)
Otherwise use the following:
=IFERROR(IF(AND(A1=0,B1=0,C1=0),0,33),0)
or e.g.
=IFERROR(IF(SUM(A1:C1)=0,0,33),0)
If you mean blank as in value "":
If you will treat an error value as a value then use the following
=IFERROR(IF(AND(A1="",B1="",C1=""),0,33),33)
Otherwise use the following:
=IFERROR(IF(AND(A1="",B1="",C1=""),0,33),0)
or e.g.
=IFERROR(IF(TEXTJOIN("",,A1:C1)="",0,33),0)
There are many other solutions
I am not looking for a specific solution in Excel, just trying to understand a few key difference between certain data types.
Imagine this, I have error code #N/A in cell A1.
I copy and paste this error code in cell A1 as Value (now the red triangle in the top left corner is gone).
I run the following formula in cell B1: =IF(A1="#N/A","Yes","No").
This returns an #N/A error.
But when I change the value in cell A1 to '#N/A, the formula works correctly; it returns Yes in cell B1. If I change the value in Cell A1 to N/A, the formula works correctly as well.
# is being seen by Excel as Text. If for instance I have # in cell A1, and I ask Excel whether this is text using =ISTEXT(A1), Excel returns a True value. If I change the value in cell A1 to #N/A, it is no longer seen as text.
So, my question, why does Excel not treat '#N/A, #N/A, N/A, and # the same?
When the #N/A error code comes up as the result of a formula, Excel is saying "This cell has a not-available type error". When you enter the value of '#N/A into a cell, Excel is saying "This cell has a text/string value of the characters '#N/A". What's happening in each cell is not equivalent to Excel.
You probably want to incorporate the IFERROR or ISNA function into your formula. Right now your code is searching for the later example, the text/string value of '#N/A. You need to use a function that is looking for an error, not a string of text.
My formula:
=IF(ISNA(VLOOKUP(B2,Dists!$D$1:$D$22250,1,FALSE) & AND(B2<>"")),"","MATCHES")
This essentially looks at B2 to see if it returns a VLOOKUP value and if it's blank.
If it's not blank, and VLOOKUP returns a value, then it displays "MATCHES" in the designated cell. If it does not return a value or it is blank, it displays the cell as blank.
I would like to expand on this, but I can't figure it out for the life of me. I am trying to have a cell display blank if B2 is blank, but display "NOT FOUND" if it's not blank and the VLOOKUP returns false. It will display "MATCHES" if the vlookup returns a value.
For example..
B2 is blank so my cell shows as blank.
B2 is not blank and VLOOKUP returns true, so my cell says MATCHES.
B2 is not blank and VLOOKUP returns false, so my cell says NOT FOUND.
Any clue?
Use this:
=IF(B2="","",IF(ISNA(VLOOKUP(B2,Dists!$D$1:$D$22250,1,FALSE)),"NOT FOUND","MATCHES"))
While your code has other structural errors resolved in the answer provided by Scott, your original function =IF(ISNA(VLOOKUP(B2,Dists!$D$1:$D$22250,1,FALSE) & AND(B2<>"")),"","MATCHES") uses the AND() function incorrectly.
AND(), OR(), XOR(), and NOT() in Excel are placed before the different condition. For example, =IF(OR(A1="Foo",A1="Bar"),"Yes","No") returns YES when A1 contains either Foo or Bar.
Microsoft Office Support - AND() function
I would like to write an IF statement, where the cell is left blank if the condition is FALSE.
Note that, if the following formula is entered in C1 (for which the condition is false) for example:
=IF(A1=1,B1,"")
and if C1 is tested for being blank or not using =ISBLANK(C1), this would return FALSE, even if C1 seems to be blank. This means that the =IF(A1=1,B1,"") formula does not technically leave the cells blank if the condition is not met.
Any thoughts as to a way of achieving that? Thanks,
Unfortunately, there is no formula way to result in a truly blank cell, "" is the best formulas can offer.
I dislike ISBLANK because it will not see cells that only have "" as blanks. Instead I prefer COUNTBLANK, which will count "" as blank, so basically =COUNTBLANK(C1)>0 means that C1 is blank or has "".
If you need to remove blank cells in a column, I would recommend filtering on the column for blanks, then selecting the resulting cells and pressing Del. After which you can remove the filter.
Try this instead
=IF(ISBLANK(C1),TRUE,(TRIM(C1)=""))
This will return true for cells that are either truly blank, or contain nothing but white space.
See this post for a few other options.
edit
To reflect the comments and what you ended up doing: Instead of evaluating to "" enter another value such as 'deleteme' and then search for 'deleteme' instead of blanks.
=IF(ISBLANK(C1),TRUE,(TRIM(C1)="deleteme"))
I wanted to add that there is another possibility - to use the function na().
e.g. =if(a2 = 5,"good",na());
This will fill the cell with #N/A and if you chart the column, the data won't be graphed. I know it isn't "blank" as such, but it's another possibility if you have blank strings in your data and "" is a valid option.
Also, count(a:a) will not count cells which have been set to n/a by doing this.
If you want to use a phenomenical (with a formula in it) blank cell to make an arithmetic/mathematical operation, all you have to do is use this formula:
=N(C1)
assuming C1 is a "blank" cell
You could try this.
=IF(A1=1,B1,TRIM(" "))
If you put this formula in cell C1, then you could test if this cell is blank in another cells
=ISBLANK(C1)
You should see TRUE. I've tried on Microsoft Excel 2013.
Hope this helps.
I've found this workaround seems to do the trick:
Modify your original formula:
=IF(A1=1,B1,"filler")
Then select the column, search and replace "filler" with nothing. The cells you want to be blank/empty are actually empty and if you test with "ISBLANK" it will return TRUE. Not the most elegant, but it's quick and it works.
The easiest solution is to use conditional formatting if the IF Statement comes back false to change the font of the results cell to whatever color background is. Yes, technically the cell isn't blank, but you won't be able to see it's contents.
This shall work (modification on above, workaround, not formula)
Modify your original formula:
=IF(A1=1,B1,"filler")
Put filter on spreadsheet, choose only "filler" in column B, highlight all the cells with "filler" in them, hit delete, remove filter
You can do something like this to show blank space:
=IF(AND((E2-D2)>0)=TRUE,E2-D2," ")
Inside if before first comma is condition then result and return value if true and last in value as blank if condition is false
The formula in C1
=IF(A1=1,B1,"")
is either giving an answer of "" (which isn't treated as blank) or the contents of B1.
If you want the formula in D1 to show TRUE if C1 is "" and FALSE if C1 has something else in then use the formula
=IF(C2="",TRUE,FALSE)
instead of ISBLANK
Here is what I do
=IF(OR(ISBLANK(AH38),AH38=""),"",IF(AI38=0,0,AH38/AI38))
Use the OR condition OR(ISBLANK(cell), cell="")
I think all you need to do is to set the value of NOT TRUE condition to make it show any error then you filter the errors with IFNA().
Here is what your formula should look like =ifna(IF(A1=1,B1,NA()))
Here is a sheet that returns blanks from if condition :
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15kWd7oPWQmGgYD_PLz9YpIldwnKWoXPHtHQAT3ulqVc/edit?usp=sharing
Nope ... that only works for Googlesheets ... not Excel.
To Validate data in column A for Blanks
Step 1: Step 1: B1=isblank(A1)
Step 2: Drag the formula for the entire column say B1:B100; This returns Ture or False from B1 to B100 depending on the data in column A
Step 3: CTRL+A (Selct all), CTRL+C (Copy All) , CRTL+V (Paste all as values)
Step4: Ctrl+F ; Find and replace function Find "False", Replace "leave this blank field" ; Find and Replace ALL
There you go Dude!
Instead of using "", use 0. Then use conditional formating to color 0 to the backgrounds color, so that it appears blank.
Since blank cells and 0 will have the same behavior in most situations, this may solve the issue.
This should should work: =IF(A1=1, B1)
The 3rd argument stating the value of the cell if the condition is not met is optional.