Fred wrote:
I have a spreadsheet (a home grown estimating template) that I want to
put a reference number in, based on the date/time, so am using =Now().
However each time the sheet re-calculates, the reference updates. I
tried using an IF to check on the value of another cell being 0 or 1
and wanted to put in a NOP (assembler term for No Operation) as the
False result to leave the contents unchanged after being set.

=IF(A1=0,Now(),NOP)

But there doesn't appear to be a NOP function within Excel.

Can anyone suggest an easy, non-VB (if possible) way round please.

Thanks in advance for any suggestions
Fred


Here's one dirt simple approach assuming the cell you're trying to control is
B1, though someone may have a better method for you.

[B1] = if(a1=0,now(),B1)

If you enter this you'll immediately see an error message that you've got a
circular reference. Click "cancel" to tell Excel to ignore it for the moment.
At this point every time Excel recalculates you'll get the error message again.
You can also kill that by going into ToolsOptionsCalculation and select the
"Iteration" box. With that selected Excel will no longer badger you about
circular references.

Not a clean solution, but simple.

Bill