ISBLANK function not working when cell is blank dut to function re

M

mcmilja

Hello,

The ISBLANK function does not work for me when the cell it's refencing is
"blank" due to a function result. Does anyone have any suggestions?

Thanks,
Jaret
 
G

Gary''s Student

You are correct. If A1 contains:
=""
then:
=ISBLANK(A1)
will return FALSE because A1 is not truely empty. So you want
=A1=""
which will return TRUE
 
M

mcmilja

Thank you Gary. I'm using the following formula
=IF(ISBLANK(A1),"SPARE","IN-USE") but if A1 contains a blank or a 0 (zero)
due to a function result, the formula above does not work. What can I use
instead of ISBLANK? I tried A1="" and A1="0" but to no avail so I must be
doing something wrong.

Thanks,
Jaret
 
G

Gary''s Student

A possible problem is using:
" "
rather than:
""


After all, they look the same!
 
G

Gord Dibben

The cell is not blank if it contains a formula returning "" so ISBLANK will
prove FALSE

There is no such thing as a NULL value if cell is not truly empty.

Suggestions..........? What do you want want to do with the cell?


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP
 
M

mcmilja

Hello Gord,

Here is the formula I'm trying to use:

=IF(ISBLANK(A1),"SPARE","IN-USE")

A1 is blank but contains the following formula
=IF(ISBLANK(VLOOKUP(X686,MTN_Xng_IPBH_ER01_Ports.xls!ER01_Xng_Path,4,FALSE)),VLOOKUP(X686,MTN_Xng_IPBH_ER01_Ports.xls!ER01_Xng_Path,5,FALSE),VLOOKUP(X686,MTN_Xng_IPBH_ER01_Ports.xls!ER01_Xng_Path,4,FALSE) )

Thanks,
Jaret
 
G

Gord Dibben

Did you see Dave P's reply?

If not, here are his suggestions.

=IF(A1="","SPARE","IN-USE")
or
=IF(trim(A1)="","SPARE","IN-USE")


Gord
 
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