Forum Discussion
Please allow this foundational concept for algorithms
This idea has been suggested before and the Excel team has commented on it:
Give us a proper NULL() worksheet function. · Community
The best way to get Microsoft's attention is to up-vote the discussion and comment. I think it's a good idea and I'd like to see it supported. Though it's further down my wish list. The change that's a higher priority for me is opening up the calculation engine and supporting nested arrays (or adding a native function that can efficiently unwrap thunks).
Hi Patrick2788. Thanks for your response and for the link you passed.
I think the referred thread deals with a very similar topic, that is a BLANK CELL, but different to the concept of an EMPTY ARRAY.
Let me define it this way:
- a BLANK CELL is a worksheet cell that contains no value and no formula.
- an EMPTY ARRAY (though this concept it is not implemented in Excel nowadays) would be a dynamic array with zero elements (size = 0).
The core difference between the 2 is that:- in the case of the BLANK CELL, the cell exists, it's just that it contains no value inside of it, like 1 cardboard box that is empty inside
- in the case of the EMPTY ARRAY, the array doesn't have any cells, like a bag that contains no cardboard boxes inside of it. If the bag contained boxes, at least the boxes could have the priviledge to be empty inside (like blank cells), but that isn't even a real possibility, since there is none.
Thanks for the suggestion dear Patrick. I will wait with high hopes for the friends of Excel to read this post.