IF function - is there a way to avoid repeating formula - excel

Question

Can't believe I don't know this, but is there a way to avoid repeating a formula in an if statement if the logical test is dependent on it?
i.e.
=IF((SUMIFS formula)=0,"",SUMIFs formula)
I want to replace that SUMIFS function in the false scenario with something short that will tell it to just programmatically repeat the formula it originally tested for. Repeating the formula twice has to have detrimental effects on processing speed. Negligible, maybe, but want to go for best-practices here. Thanks.

Answer 1

You can force an error like #DIV/0! and then use IFERROR, e.g.
=IFERROR(1/(1/SUMIFS_formula),"")

Answer 2

You can assign a Name to a formula and use the Name..............See:
Assigning a name to a formula
Relevant excerpt -
For example, let's suppose we frequently use a formula like:
=SUM(A1:A100)-SUM(B1:B100) and this resides in A101 and is copied across many columns on row 101. It would be better in this case to
create a custom formula that does this in each cell on row 101. Here
is how;
1) Select cell A101 (this is vital).
2) Go to Insert>Name>Define and
in the "Names in workbook" box type: SalesLessCosts
3) Now click in
the "Refers to" box and type: =SUM(A1:A100)-SUM(B1:B100) then click
Add.
Now you can replace the formula in cell A101 with: =SalesLessCosts.
You can also copy this across row 101 and it will change its relative
references just as the formula =SUM(A1:A100)-SUM(B1:B100) would. The
reason it does this is all down to the fact we selected A101 before
going to Insert>Name>Define and used relative references in
=SUM(A1:A100)-SUM(B1:B100) when we added it to the "Refers to" box.

Answer 3

If all you need to do is hide zeroes, there is an easy way:
Select all cells where you wish to hide zeroes
Go into Custom Number Formatting
Set format to "General;General;"
The custom formatting has a structure of [positive numbers];[negative numbers];[zeroes]
By making the last part blank you are effectively hiding zeroes, but showing everything else.
The advantage over conditional formatting is that you can use this on any background.
A neat trick which I sometimes use is to hide the cell value completely by using a custom format of ";;;". This way you can put images inside the cells, like the conditional formatting ones, and not see the value at all.

Answer 4

Try using the SUBSTITUTE function like this :
=SUBSTITUTE( VLOOKUP( H4; $D$5:$E$8; 2; 0 ); $H$1; $I$1 )
Here is an example:
Here the formula I don't want to repeat twice is the VLOOKUP function.
The result of VLOOKUP is a string found in another table (ex : "Green").
I want to check if that string matches a specific string value in $H$1 (here, "Yellow").
If it does, SUBSTITUTE replaces it with$I$1 (the error string you want. Here, "FORBIDDEN").
If it doesn't, it displays the VLOOKUP result string (the normal authorized output, like "Green").
This is useful for me because my actual formula is quite long, so I don't want to write it twice.
I also dont want to use two different cells, because I'm already applying this formula on 10 columns, meaning I should add an extra 10 columns to make it work.

Answer 5

In some scenarios, MAX() or MIN() can do a wonderful job.
E.g., something like this:
=IF(SUMIFSformula>0,SUMIFSformula, 0)
Can be shortened to this:
=MAX(0,SUMIFSformula)

Answer 6

The LET formula can be used for this exact scenario. You can define the formula as a variable and then within that same cell you can reference the variable in your formula.
The LET formula format looks like this:
=LET(name,name_value,calculation)
SUMIFS Example
Here's how it would work with your SUMIF example so that you don't have to repeat the formula:
In this screenshot we have an array A1:B7. We want to sum the values (Col B) if the name in ColA is "apple".
For this we have a standard SUMIFS formula of
=SUMIFS(B1:B7,A1:A7,"apple")
The formula is showing in E2. The result is shown in E3.
To put this into the IF statement without having to repeat the formula we can use LET as shown in the screenshot.
We create a variable with the SUMIFS formula as the value of that variable. We then write our IF statement using the variable name instead of rewriting the formula multiple times.
=LET(name,name_value,calculation)
Variable name: sumapples
Variable value: SUMIFS(B1:B7,A1:A7,"apple")
Calculation: IF(sumapples=0,"",sumapples)
Put together in the LET function it looks like this:
=LET(sumapples,SUMIFS(B1:B7,A1:B7,"apple"),IF(sumapples=0,"",sumapples))
This LET function can be used in any Excel formula, and is very useful for shortening long formulas that have repetition.
Optional: Extra complexity
If you want to you can get extra complicated by naming multiple variables.
=LET(name,name_value,name2,name_value2,calculation)

Answer 7

Since Excel 2007, the IFERROR statement does what the OP asked. From the help file:
Description:
Returns a value you specify if a formula evaluates to an error; otherwise, returns the result of the formula. [italics mine]
Syntax:
IFERROR(value, value_if_error)
I've since realised that this was already answered by #barry houdini above.

Answer 8

Here is a hack - depending on whether you are just interested in the displayed value, or whether you need to use the value in another formula:
Put your SUMIF formula in the cell (without the IF part)
Create a conditional formatting rule which sets the font color to the background color when the cell value is 0
And hey presto, you get the desired result.
As I said - it's a hack, but it does prevent the double evaluation.
There is no "clean" solution that I am aware of.