Concatenate Formula (Getting a #REF Error) - excel

Afternoon all :)
This is kind of a little difficult to explain but ill happily clarify where ever it is needed. Thank you for taking the time to read this post ^^ Here goes..
I am currently creating a spreadsheet that is been extracted from the database whereby I am tasked to concatenate data from 2 adjacent cells. I change the database on a frequent basis adding or removing data wherever necessary so the range of data is always different. To concatenate the two cells I use the following formula:
e.g: =IF(ISBLANK(B8&H8),"",B8&H8)
This formula works out great when im dealing with increasing amounts of data as I can simply drag the formula down as far as i want and i know that it will pick up the formula whenever I refresh the database without the need of seeing value errors when the formula ends up referring to a blank cell. The snag here (and my query as well) is if I have less data then before the formula within the last set of cells looks something like this:
e.g: =IF(ISBLANK(#REF!&#REF!),"",#REF!&#REF!)
I have dealt with #REF before in other spreadsheets whereby I simply used a ISERROR in the statement but I dont know if there is a possible way of including this within my formula. I need the ISBLANK there so I have more control and dont have to drag the formula as often.
If there is a better way around this or a way to amend the current formula Id appreciate the help :)

The only way you are going to get something like this:
=IF(ISBLANK(#REF!&#REF!),"",#REF!&#REF!)
in the formula bar is if you(or the system you are using) are somehow deleting the cells that were originally referenced. This should be avoidable. You can clear the cells referenced instead of deleting them completely - then you won't get this error - and your formulas will remain intact. Now you can certainly use the formulas provided in the comments to hide the errors - but the root of your problem seems to me to be that the errors are occuring in the first place. Good Luck.

Related

Formulas within a reference

I'm fairly new to excel but have been learning lots. Please go easy on me.
Have 30,000 pieces of data, and constantly filtering this data set. As such, all my formulas constantly need to be updated to the new range (for example, a filter may change my range from B7000:B9000 from B1:B30000). I was able to make it so I can retrieve the row numbers for the first and last visible column.
I was hoping to be able to reference this within my cells to expand my range. What I tried (just as an example),
=INDEX(Helper!D3:Helper!E3),MATCH... (rest of the formula is correct)
In the Helper Spreadsheets for D3 I have
=Concatenate("'Sheet 1'!U"&D2)
Where, D2 is the formula I have used to grab my first visible row. In this case my D2 displays 7000
Is this doable or am I totally approaching this wrong? I've seemed to hit a brick wall and I can't figure out how to get this to work. Thanks again.
EDIT:
I am trying to use index and match on a range of cells to populate a fairly large table. Problem is range keeps changing every time I filter data. So I have 30 iterations of this data I need to get through in an already fairly complex algorithm i'm running. I was hoping to save a few steps by having my formulas auto expand depending on the filter, which would save me lots of headache as right now I have to go through and edit each formula by hand to the range the filter sets.
I thought I had it figured out by getting a way to grab the 1st and last visible column, however now I can't enter those into a reference as a formula for example as in the case above.

How to identify the cells from the sumproduct formula result

I would first like to apologize if this question has already been posted and answered numerous times but I was unable to find the right wording for my question to find a thread that matched.
I have a Sumproduct formula with multiple criteria that helps identify the number of issues I have on the main spread sheet. I got the number of issues, however now I would like to identify the cells meeting this criteria. Is there any way to do this?
To further explain my intention, the main tab on my spread sheet is a report with many different columns that would need to be filtered several different ways each time in order to catch the exceptions we are looking for. I am trying to avoid this manual process by creating a new tab to show these exceptions without having to look for them and leave cause for any user/human error where something could potentially be missed. In a new tab, I used several formulas (like the one below) to determine the number of different exceptions we need to catch, however I am wondering if there is a way to also identify these specific cells that the exceptions fall in so that the user can immediately locate and correct it.
For example: 2 issues identified; B10 and B26. (Or more specifically, if possible, the contents of that given cell?)
Sumproduct:
=SUMPRODUCT(--(May!C2:C452="FHA"),--(May!Z2:Z452<>""),--(May!AB2:AB452<>""),--(May!AC2:AC452=""))
Note: I have also tried to achieve this by using conditional formatting using the formula above, however the issue that I run into with that approach is that the entire row gets highlighted instead of the specific cells matching the criteria from the formula. I am open to a solution with this as well if it is an easier approach.
I hope I am getting across what I am trying to do! Thank you in advance to whomever can help!
Consider adding an additional column to the May worksheet. The new column would contain formulas like:
=(C2="FHA")*(Z2<>"")*(AB2<>"")*(AC2="")
If you AutoFilter on this new column, you will see all the contributors to the SUMPRODUCT() formula.
Your 2 issues identified; B10 and B26 appears to refer to cells that have no bearing on what you seek to achieve so I may have misunderstood but suggest selecting A:AC and applying a CF formula rule of:
=AND($C1="FHA",$Z1<>"",$AB1<>"",$AC1="",OR(COLUMN()=3,COLUMN()=26,COLUMN()=28,COLUMN()=29))

Excel: If vlookup returns specific text, countifs number of instances (multiple)

First post, but I am stuck and was hoping for some help. What I am trying to do is use a nested IF formula to determine whether the value returned by a VLOOKUP matches specific text on another sheet in the same workbook. If it does, to then use the COUNTIFS function to determine the sum of instances that specific text contained in a specific cell appears on another sheet (also in the same workbook).
One part of these formulas seems to work, but when I combine it with others, it errors and I can't figure out why.
It's probably something simple, but I'd appreciate any help. Here's the part that seems to "work"
=IF(VLOOKUP($A3,'Sheet1'!$B:$D,3,FALSE)="All",
(COUNTIFS('Sheet2'!$U:$U,'Sheet3'!$A3,'Sheet2'!$C:$C,"MM/DD/YYYY")
+
(COUNTIFS('Sheet2'!$R:$R,'Sheet3'!$A3,'Sheet2'!$C:$C,"MM/DD/YYYY")))
If I put one more parenthesis, it works as is, but seems to omit some of the "All" Vlookup results... thus why I put works in quotations above. That might be an issue with my spreadsheet though, but felt I should include in case I'm just being idiotic. Regardless, when I input two additional IF statements, it errors.
The final formula I've crafted looks like this (double spaced for ease of reading only):
=IF(VLOOKUP($A3,'Sheet1'!$B:$D,3,FALSE)="All",
(COUNTIFS('Sheet2'!$U:$U,'Sheet3'!$A3,'Sheet2'!$C:$C,"MM/DD/YYYY")
+
(COUNTIFS('Sheet2'!$R:$R,'Sheet3'!$A3,'Sheet2'!$C:$C,"MM/DD/YYYY")))),
IF((VLOOKUP($A3,'Sheet1'!$B:$D,3,FALSE)="One",
(COUNTIFS('Sheet2'!$U:$U,'Sheet3'!$A3,'Sheet2'!$C:$C,"MM/DD/YYYY")),
IF((VLOOKUP($A3,'Sheet1'!$B:$D,3,FALSE)="Two",
(COUNTIFS('Sheet2'!$R:$R,'Sheet3'!$A3,'Sheet2'!$C:$C,"MM/DD/YYYY"),
IF((VLOOKUP($A3,'Sheet1'!$B:$D,3,FALSE)="Three",
(COUNTIFS('Sheet2'!$U:$U,'Sheet3'!$A3,'Sheet2'!$C:$C,"MM/DD/YYYY")),"0"))
Any ideas?
Thanks!
Ryan Olson
Just cleaned up some bracketing. Let me know how it goes as I didn't alter the formula otherwise.
=IF(VLOOKUP($A3,Sheet1!$B:$D,3,FALSE)="All",
COUNTIFS(Sheet2!$U:$U,Sheet3!$A3,Sheet2!$C:$C,"MM/DD/YYYY")+(COUNTIFS(Sheet2!$R:$R,Sheet3!$A3,Sheet2!$C:$C,"MM/DD/YYYY")),
IF(VLOOKUP($A3,Sheet1!$B:$D,3,FALSE)="One",
COUNTIFS(Sheet2!$U:$U,Sheet3!$A3,Sheet2!$C:$C,"MM/DD/YYYY"),
IF(VLOOKUP($A3,Sheet1!$B:$D,3,FALSE)="Two",
COUNTIFS(Sheet2!$R:$R,Sheet3!$A3,Sheet2!$C:$C,"MM/DD/YYYY"),
IF(VLOOKUP($A3,Sheet1!$B:$D,3,FALSE)="Three",
COUNTIFS(Sheet2!$U:$U,Sheet3!$A3,Sheet2!$C:$C,"MM/DD/YYYY"),"0"))))

Is it possible to test/return if a cell is merged WITHOUT VBA

Apologies if this question has already been asked somewhere but I couldn't find a definitive answer regarding if it's possible without VBA.
I need a function to be able to know whether a cell is part of a merged groups of cells or not. I have tried =cell() and none of the properties return anything that might give a clue that it is merged (the cells are all identical apart from the left-most cell in the merged group of cells obviously contains a value).
I have found a very good VBA function that quickly tests this How to get find if a cell in excel is merged? If the cell mrged how to read the value?, and it works great! But unfortunately I need this document to work in Google Sheets, and therefore cannot use VBA or macros.
Does anyone know if it is possible to test if a cell is merged in a non-VBA way. Or if it is possible to use this function in Google Sheets somehow?
Function IsMerged(rCell As Range) As Boolean
' Returns true if referenced cell is Merged
IsMerged = rCell.MergeCells
End Function
(Original code submitted by Vinny Roe - thanks!)
Quick answer - no, you probably can't do this without macros. And even if you could, you should avoid merging cells on formula sheets, because as you've already gathered, it can be a big inconvenience.
Long answer - you may be able to do this, assuming ALL of your cells have data in them [except the non-top-left portion of merged cells]. This would more or less just consist of you checking whether a cell was blank - and if it was, then what is the cell either directly above it or directly to the left of it which contains data.
Without knowing what you want this information for, it's hard to advise further, although really the point is that if you're looking at working with merged cells, don't.

Using a Variable in Excel for COUNTIF

First time question and I hope it's easier than I'm making this.
Can I use a variable inside a COUNTIF formula?
Currently my formula is:
=COUNTIF($C$2:$C$415,R6)
I would like to have $415 as my variable. I have tried something along the lines of:
D1=415=COUNTIF($C$2:$C$(D1),R6) ..
but obviously get a error.
The reason I need this is column C will constantly be incrementing as I add more rows.
Instead of going into each of my formulas and updated 415 to 416, 417 etc, I would like to just define a Cell that can be my variable, or total rows.
Currently Column C can have blank cells, so I can't have a macro that finds the next empty cell.. but I do however have Column A with a constant populated cell and stops at the last ticket. However Column A is unrelated to the COUNTIF.
UPDATE 1
I'd also like to mention that I'd be using this variable in many formulas in the spreadsheet. Not only COUNTIF's. Also, the COUNTIF contains text.
UPDATE 2
Actually, I figured it out! I am using this formula instead:
=COUNTIF(INDIRECT("C"&D1&":A"&D2),R6)
I'm putting D1=2 and D2=415 and will just update cell D2 with how many rows I have.
I guess I just needed to ask the question thoroughly to fully understand what I wanted!
Thank you in advance for all help, tips and suggestions.
Would "=COUNTIF($C:$C,R6)" do the trick? This will apply COUNTIF to the whole of column C. It's an easy solution, but probably not the most efficient.
I prefer tables for storing data; as new data is added, the table automatically expands and the columns are already labeled (much like Named Ranges). Then you can have =COUNTIF(Table1[Column1],"Criteria"), which will encompass any new rows added to the table automatically. Especially helpful if you have multiple tables in the same column.

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