Posted to microsoft.public.excel.misc
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When is a cell empty and how do I empty it.
"I see" said the blind man, as he picked up his hammer and saw....
SUMPRODUCT now has value. Significant value!
Thanks for your great explaination and link.
Have a wonderful week,
Craig
"Peo Sjoblom" wrote in message
...
Craig,
this part
B2:B20<""
translates to "does not equal blank" (regardless whether the blank is
derived from a totally empty cell or a formula that returns a null string)
and it will return an array of TRUE or FALSE depending on the cell
contents, like this
{FALSE;TRUE;FALSE;FALSE; and so on
where in this case cell number 2 (B3) holds a value that is not blank
returned from this formula
=IF(AND(A3 <MAX,A3MIN,A3,"")
meaning that B3 holds whatever is in A3
so the formula could look like
=SUMPRODUCT(--({FALSE;TRUE;FALSE;FALSE;FALSE;FALSE;FALSE;FALSE;F ALSE;FALSE;F
ALSE;FALSE;FALSE;FALSE;FALSE;FALSE;FALSE;FALSE;FAL SE}))
by either adding 0, multiplying with 1 or using a unary minus we coerce
the
above array of TRUE or FALSE into 1s or 0s
=SUMPRODUCT({0;1;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0;0 })
then SUMPRODUCT will sum those zeros and 1s and in this case return 1
Here's a link
http://www.mcgimpsey.com/excel/formulae/doubleneg.html
--
Regards,
Peo Sjoblom
"C Brandt" wrote in message
...
Every once in a while, I stand back in amazement at solutions that end
up
fixing a problem. This is one of those times.
Generally, I research the suggestions, learn something new and apply it
to
my problem. Thanks to this group, I have been able to develop some
pretty
neat spreadsheets that solve problems faced by the small group of people
I
work with.
This solution, while it seems to work beautifully, I cannot, for the
life
of
me, figure out why or how it works.
Upon review, I viewed SUMPRODUCT as a shortcut to lots of multiplying
and
adding, and saw little of value and could not understand how it applied
to
my problem. I have learned to never disregard advice given in this forum
and
therefore, simply pasted your formula in my spreadsheet with the
necessary
address changes to fit, it worked. Why? I have no earthly idea!
Specific questions: What does the -- mean to the formula? What does the
<"" do? and Since I thought that SUMPRODUCT multiplyed "Group A"
against
"Group B" then added the answers for a single sum. The Data in the Range
given in the formula is text and I thought that SUMPRODUCT would treat
it
as
a ZERO.
With all this said: IT WORKED!
Is there a source of wisdom somewhere online that would help me out?
In your debt,
Craig
"Peo Sjoblom" wrote in message
...
Or use something else than COUNTA
=SUMPRODUCT(--(B2:B20<""))
--
Regards,
Peo Sjoblom
"Ken Johnson" wrote in message
ups.com...
On Aug 11, 7:33 am, "C Brandt" wrote:
I ran across an interesting problem. I need to count the number of
valid
entries and I simply used an IF statement to apply criteria to a
column
of
cells and copied only those I was interested in counting to the
adjacent
column, then used COUNTA( ) to count them.
B12 is equal to =IF(and(A12 <MAX,A12MIN,A12,"")
Didn't work. It counts the "" cells.
If I manually delete one of the "" entries in column B, it doesn't
count
it.
Is there a simple solution?
Thanks,
Craig
Hi Craig,
One way would be to stop using "" and use something like "NO"
instead,
then use COUNTIF(B:B,"NO").
Ken Johnson
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