No, a formula cannot return a true blank, because the cell contains
the formula !!

Have you tried something like this:

=IF(j4="","",j4)

Hope this helps.

Pete

On Oct 30, 1:38 pm, dcwood57
wrote:
Is there a way for a formula to return a true blank?

I'm trying to do a query, for either DCountA or SumProduct, that refers to
another cell for the criteria. I wish to have that criteria ignored if it is
blank.

=If(Isblank(j4),"",j4) -- doesn't do the job because "" actually returns an
empty string rather than a true blank. "" is not treated the same as a true
blank in criteria ranges.

The reason I'm trying to do this is that I'm trying to do several (actually
24) queries based upon selections from dropdown lists.