L. ALEXANDER said:
When copying cell information using a formula, if the
copyed cell is a blank the cell with the formula is not a
blank but shows a date.
I'm not exactly sure what you're referring to. I'll work through this
making some assumptions -- please ignore them if I get off-base.
1. You have a formula in A2 that is "=A1". This is 'copying cell
information using a formula'.
2. This generally works - A2 shows what A1 shows.
3. You have several of these formulas (B2 is "=B1", C2 is "=C1").
4. Sometimes C1 or D1 is a blank cell with no data in it. In that
case, the formula is evaluating "=C1" and C1 is blank. Excel
translates that to the value '0' or zero.
5. It doesn't show as 0 - it shows as a date (perhaps Jan 0th, 1900!).
This is because Excel if formating the value 0 as a date. It may be
basing the format on the pre-existing format in that cell, or the
format of the formula reference, or the format of adjacent cells - I'm
not sure which way Excel will try to do first.
6. To change the format, use the menu Format | Cells | Number(tab).
Hope this helps,
Matthew
