Another way of seeing it is that when I really have an empty cell in A1 and
in A2 I have a formula that says =A1*10 (for example) the result is 0 ...
fair enough...

....but if I have in A1 a formula that says =if(ISBLANK(B1);"";B1) (because I
realized that if I only say =B1 and B1 is blank than the formula returns 0
instead of blank) and that B1 is indeed a real blank than I do not see any 0
in A1, as I wanted, but the result in A2 becomes #VALUE!.
When I want to see the calculation steps I see =""*10 with the explanation
the next evaluation will result in an error.

I do not understand why Excel cannot considere the result in A1 just as it
considers a real empty cell !?


"Elkar" wrote:

The presence of a formula in a cell makes that cell non-blank. Even if the
value returned is nothing, it is stlil a returned value.

I'm not clear as to what exactly you're trying to do, but how about using
double-quotes "" to find a blank value in a cell with a formula?

=IF(A2="","Empty","Full")

HTH,
Elkar



"Nicoscot" wrote:

I do not understand why a cell that contains a formula which result is empty
is not considered as an empty cell.
Example: The cell A1 is empty; in cell A2 I type =A1; in cell A3 I type
=if(isblank(A2);"empty";"full") and the result in A3 is... "full". I do not
get it.
Other example:The cell A1 is empty; in cell A2 I type =A1; in cell A3 I type
=if(A20;"number higher than 0";"other") and the result in A3 is... "number
higher than 0"!!!!.... Even in the case that the value in A2 was 0 how could
it be strictly superior to 0!!! That makes no sense at all.
Please tell me how to create a reference to an empty cell whose result is
indeed an empty cell. I am going crazy.