How to define blank cell?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Eric
  • Start date Start date
E

Eric

If condition does not meet, then nothing in cell, which I use "" to define
blank cell, however, some plug-in for Excel cannot recognize "" as a blank
cell.
Does anyone have any suggestions on another approach to define blank within
formula?
Thanks in advance for any suggestions
Eric
 
I don't think there is some universal way short of 'Clear contents' - and I
hope you don't consider it as an option :-)

Really, when you have a formula in cell, it never is empty - whatever the
formula returns, there is the formula itself too!



Arvi Laanemets.
 
Within a formula, generally you can use one of 2 tests:
=""
or
ISBLANK(A1)
ISBLANK() is not true unless there really is nothing in the cell, not even a
formula returning "".
Another option, that will return 0 for either an empty cell or one with ""
in it would be:
LEN(A1)=0
 
RE: some plug-in for Excel cannot recognize "" as a blank
cell.

That's because the cell is NOT blank and contains a formula.

I prefer to have formulas return Zero over empty text as Zeros are numeric
and can be easily hidden.

Perhaps you question should detail what you want to do?
 
As long as the cell is going to have a formula, the cell will never be empty.

If I have to make sure that the blank looking cells are really empty, I'll use
this technique.

I'll use a formula like:
=if(a1>10,"too big",na())
And drag down the range

Then I'll clean up the #n/a's. But this will lose the formulas from those
cells.

I'll select the range
Edit|goto (or F5 or ctrl-g)
Special|formulas|Check errors (uncheck the other choices)
hit ok
hit the delete key on the keyboard

Remember that this deletes the formulas in those cells!
 
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