Forum Discussion
IF FALSE THEN BLANK
Hello, Im hoping someone could please help me with this formula... =IF(F2="x",INDEX(M12:M14,RANDBETWEEN(1,ROWS(M12:M14)),1)) If F2 is X, then this cell will select the contents of a random ce...
This does not strictly answer his question (though he seems happy enough). I was intrigued by the question because after years of programming Excel, I don't know the answer myself. Your "" does not satisfy ISBLANK. It just appears blank to the human reader.
ecovonrein wrote: ``Your "" does not satisfy ISBLANK. It just appears blank``
Right, and nothing can. (See below.)
But jamesvinicombe did not specifically ask for that. On the contrary, he wrote: ``I have tried adding ,"" [...] and it does not work``. So I believe I correctly interpreted his question to be: how can we return "" (the null string)? And as you say, he seems satisfied with my interpretation.
As to your question.... The problem is: ISBLANK is a misnomer. It should be ISEMPTY. That is, in Excel, ISBLANK returns true only if there is no value (constant or formula result) in the cell -- which is the Excel definition of an empty cell.
And that is what the IS functions help page says about ISBLANK, to wit: ``Value refers to an empty cell.``
(Sadly, MSFT misuses the word "value" to mean either parameter or cell reference.)
But your confusion is understandable. Excel is imprecise and ambiguous in its use of the terms "empty" and "blank". For example, in the COUNTBLANK help page, the one-line description is ``count the number of empty cells in a range``. But a later remark in the help page states ``Cells with formulas that return "" [...] are also counted``.
(And once again, MSFT's choice of words is imprecise. COUNTBLANK counts any value that is the null string, whether it is a formula result or a constant. One way to create a constant null string is: enter the formula ="", then copy-and-paste-value back into the same cell.)
The bottom line is:
1. Use ISBLANK when you want to determine if a cell appears blank because it has no value.
2. Use A1="" when you want to determine if a cell appears blank because it has no value or its value is the null string.
3. Use AND(A1="",ISBLANK(A1)=FALSE) if you want to determine if a cell appears blank only because its value is the null string. (Very unusual, IMHO,)
And of course, use the null string "", not a string of spaces like " ", when you want a result that appears blank, because it is easier to use test #2 above, which is usually the intended condition, IMHO.
And as noted above, beware that a cell that appears to be empty because it has no formula might actually contain a constant null string. That can explain why A1+1 results in #VALUE, even though a (truly) empty cell is interpreted as zero in that context.
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Finally, IIRC, Google Sheets has a function that returns a truly "empty cell" result -- a contradiction of terms, IMHO. Thus, ISBLANK returns TRUE for that cell. If not Google Sheets, then perhaps Open Office. I don't recall, and I'm not taking the time double-check.
Also, I am not familiar with Office 365 Excel and all of its oh-so-many iterations and "beta" features. Perhaps a more-current version of Excel does or will have a similar function. I don't know.
The problem is, When you create a pivot table, and want to use your date column of your source data as a Row value on the pivot table.
If your Date column has Dates and actual empty cells, the pivot table sees your date as a date, and you can group by things like Year, or Month or Quarter and expand and collapse on that, but if you have any "" values in your date column, the pivot table sees nothing as a date anymore, and all of a sudden, nothing is grouped, and everything is treated as text on the pivot table.So far the only 2 Bad work-arounds seems to be:
- After your IF statement created "" as value, manually go and delete all cell values that have value "" so that the cell is actually empty.
- Write a macro to go delete all cell values if value is "" after changes happened.
Both really not ideal solutions and solution 2 is just an automation really of solution 1
GerrieGrotman wrote: ``The problem is, When you create a pivot table [....] the pivot table sees nothing as a date anymore, [...] and everything is treated as text on the pivot table.``
I'm afraid I know little-to-nothing about PTs. I suggest that you post a new question and make the subject specifically about null strings in PT data.
Off-hand, I wonder if the following would solve the problem....
Instead of using IF( ... , ""), how about using IF( ... , 0) and the following Custom cell format to make the cell appear to be blank: [=0]"";m/d/yyyy .
(And is there a way to coerce the PT to ignore zero-valued cells?)
Again, if that is an uneducated misdirection, let's not discuss it here (except to acknowledge that it does not work, for the benefit of other readers).
If you create a new discussion with an appropriate title, you are likely to attract helpers who are knowledgeable about PTs.
JoeUser2004 I am having the same issue with the below formula, showing FALSE when I just want it blank
=IF(OR(B250="T2R",B250="T1R"),IF(AND(O250>=24),O250-24,0))
And the root cause is the same: you are lacking a value-if-false part.
Perhaps you simply want:
=IF(OR(B250="T2R",B250="T1R"),IF(AND(O250>=24),O250-24,0) , "" )
or simply:
=IF(OR(B250="T2R",B250="T1R"), MAX( O250-24, 0 ) , "" )
