Excel: Can IF function return a blank cell?

[sauroneru]

I would like to have IF functions return blank cells. Example:

=if(A2="foo","bar",BLANK)

Then, when filling down, I get either cells with "bar" in them or cells that would return true for the ISBLANK function. It seems "" creates an empty text string, but not a blank cell.

 

[SkipVought]

Hi,
=if(A2="foo","bar","&quot

thats all Skip,
Skip@TheOfficeExperts.com

http://www.TheOfficeExperts.com

 

[sauroneru]

Hmmm... that doesn't work for me.

A1 => foo
A2 => =if(A1="foo","&quot
A3 => =isblank(A2) => FALSE

 

[SkipVought]

ISBLANK returns TRUE if the cell is empty.

Of course, this cell is NOT empty. It contains a FORMULA that returns a value of a NULL string.

What are you trying to do? Skip,
Skip@TheOfficeExperts.com

http://www.TheOfficeExperts.com

 

[SkipVought]

Here is a table of values returned from either the formula of an empty cell...

        ISBLANK ISTEXT  ISNUMBER
formula FALSE   TRUE    FALSE
empty   TRUE    FALSE   FALSE

Skip,
Skip@TheOfficeExperts.com

http://www.TheOfficeExperts.com

 

[sauroneru]

I am building conditional lists of data in columns. Ie, =if(A1="Name",B1,"&quot. I would then like to do things such as average the data (not a problem) and make histograms (problem, as it tells me my data range contains non-numeric data). I can delete the empty cells using the Goto function and delete, but I've always wondered if there was a more upfront way to do this.

 

[SkipVought]

and...

you don't want to make those zero, because zero is something different than empty. Skip,
Skip@TheOfficeExperts.com

http://www.TheOfficeExperts.com