Forum Discussion

LS228's avatar
LS228
Copper Contributor
Mar 28, 2026

How to keep the result of the formula from appearing down the column before a number is added

I wish to produce a Teams running score sheet for lawn bowls.  When each team (rink) has finished their end the score for either the H or A team is entered.  When the next end is finished again the score is entered for the winning team.  I am using an IF function in each of the coloured cells:

 

=IF(B13="",C12,B13+C12)

This works well, however the result of C?? runs down the entire column as cells in column B are blank waiting for the scores to be added.  How can I fix this so the scores show for the rows only and not the entire column.

Formula for the TOTALS column is 

=C10+G10+K10

 

Excel on Mac

2 Replies

  • m_tarler's avatar
    m_tarler
    Bronze Contributor
    Mar 30, 2026

    I think what you want is a formula like this:

    =IF( N(B10)+ N(D10), SUM(B10,C9),"" )

    So basically if either B10 (Home score) or D10 (Away score) is a number then report the accumulating sum.  If not, then put in a blank ("").  For the Away it is nearly the same but summing those cells:

    =IF( N(B10)+ N(D10), SUM(D10,E9),"" )

    Here is the result:

    I have added this option in SnowMan55's file (if it will attach for we'll see....)

  • SnowMan55's avatar
    SnowMan55
    Bronze Contributor
    Mar 30, 2026

    That can be handled either in cell formulas or by conditional formatting.  The attached workbook* shows both techniques.

    *...assuming I can get the forum to keep the attachment.  Let's see.

    Edit: The attachment was dropped, so see this file on OneDrive: 2026-03-30 LS sums only where data is present.xlsx