Ive imported my Trial Balance into one tab. I want to analyse this
information on other tabs in various ways and apply some simple sums to
the values. But when I link these cells to my Trial Balance and there
is no actual number I get an error if I try to apply a formula to it.
It sees a blank as a space, not the absence of an actual value.

How do I sum a range of these cells when some are spaces. Is there a
formula that I can use to copy the entire TB and only copy the values,
ignoring the spaces ? Then this can be the TB I analyse.


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Ainsley
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You can use a formula like:

=sum(a1:b9)

This will ignore cells that are empty and cells that have text in them.

If you want to retrieve a value from a cell, you can use a formula like:
=sheet2!a1

But this will show 0 if that cell is empty.

=if(sheet2!a1="","",sheet2!a1)

will make it look like the cell is blank if that other cell is empty.

Ainsley wrote:

Ive imported my Trial Balance into one tab. I want to analyse this
information on other tabs in various ways and apply some simple sums to
the values. But when I link these cells to my Trial Balance and there
is no actual number I get an error if I try to apply a formula to it.
It sees a blank as a space, not the absence of an actual value.

How do I sum a range of these cells when some are spaces. Is there a
formula that I can use to copy the entire TB and only copy the values,
ignoring the spaces ? Then this can be the TB I analyse.

--
Ainsley
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--

Dave Peterson

Ive tried those formulas which unfortunatly dont work.

My Trial Balance has some numbers and some spaces in it. The spaces
are causing problems as whatever formulas I use I get errors as I cant
add up numbers and spaces. The spaces are caused by my accounting
package displaying an abscence of a value as a space, as if you used
your space bar to clear out a cell.

How do I remove the "spaces" so there is nothing in the cell ?

Regards, Ainsley


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Ainsley
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=sum() will ignore the text values in that range.

But it sounds like your "numbers" aren't numbers. They are text masquerading as
numbers.

David McRitchie has a macro that cleans up this kind of stuff:

http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/join.htm#trimall
(look for "Sub Trimall()"

If you're new to macros, you may want to read David McRitchie's intro at:
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/getstarted.htm

Ainsley wrote:

Ive tried those formulas which unfortunatly dont work.

My Trial Balance has some numbers and some spaces in it. The spaces
are causing problems as whatever formulas I use I get errors as I cant
add up numbers and spaces. The spaces are caused by my accounting
package displaying an abscence of a value as a space, as if you used
your space bar to clear out a cell.

How do I remove the "spaces" so there is nothing in the cell ?

Regards, Ainsley

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Ainsley
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--

Dave Peterson

Ah, thats great. Its solved my problem by just using =sum().

Made my day, cheers.


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Ainsley
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