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#1
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Blank cells?
Greetings and thanks in advance for your time.
The following scenario captures the essence of the problem: In an empty spreadsheet, if I enter "" into cell A10 and then copy and paste values, A10 appears to be blank. However, if I select cell A1 and press [end] then down arrow, cell A10 will be selected. This suggests that A10 is somehow different to it's neighbouring blank cells? Can anyone please throw any light on this? -- David |
#2
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Hi David
"" doesn't make a cell blank - it adds a zero length text string into the cell. generally the ISBLANK function is used to check if a cell is blank or not - a cell with "" in it will return FALSE on this test. Cheers JulieD "David" wrote in message ... Greetings and thanks in advance for your time. The following scenario captures the essence of the problem: In an empty spreadsheet, if I enter "" into cell A10 and then copy and paste values, A10 appears to be blank. However, if I select cell A1 and press [end] then down arrow, cell A10 will be selected. This suggests that A10 is somehow different to it's neighbouring blank cells? Can anyone please throw any light on this? -- David |
#3
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Julie,
With respect, please read my question. I am asking about "" after copy and paste values Thanks "JulieD" wrote: Hi David "" doesn't make a cell blank - it adds a zero length text string into the cell. generally the ISBLANK function is used to check if a cell is blank or not - a cell with "" in it will return FALSE on this test. Cheers JulieD "David" wrote in message ... Greetings and thanks in advance for your time. The following scenario captures the essence of the problem: In an empty spreadsheet, if I enter "" into cell A10 and then copy and paste values, A10 appears to be blank. However, if I select cell A1 and press [end] then down arrow, cell A10 will be selected. This suggests that A10 is somehow different to it's neighbouring blank cells? Can anyone please throw any light on this? -- David |
#4
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Hi David
sorry i must be dense tonight (denser?) ... if you've typed "" into a cell then it is not blank any more - it contains a zero length string .... not sure where the copy & paste special comes into it, though. If i type "" into A10, i see "" in cell A10. If i click on cell A10 and copy & paste special - values back into A10 i still see "" - using excel 2003. However if i type the following formula into cell A10 =IF(A1="","","") and then copy / paste special values on A10 i see a "blank" cell which when i use =ISBLANK(A10) returns FALSE. - which is what i expect as "" is not blank it's a "zero lenght string" Cheers JulieD "David" wrote in message ... Julie, With respect, please read my question. I am asking about "" after copy and paste values Thanks "JulieD" wrote: Hi David "" doesn't make a cell blank - it adds a zero length text string into the cell. generally the ISBLANK function is used to check if a cell is blank or not - a cell with "" in it will return FALSE on this test. Cheers JulieD "David" wrote in message ... Greetings and thanks in advance for your time. The following scenario captures the essence of the problem: In an empty spreadsheet, if I enter "" into cell A10 and then copy and paste values, A10 appears to be blank. However, if I select cell A1 and press [end] then down arrow, cell A10 will be selected. This suggests that A10 is somehow different to it's neighbouring blank cells? Can anyone please throw any light on this? -- David |
#5
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David wrote...
The following scenario captures the essence of the problem: In an empty spreadsheet, if I enter "" into cell A10 and then copy and paste values, A10 appears to be blank. However, if I select cell A1 and press [end] then down arrow, cell A10 will be selected. This suggests that A10 is somehow different to it's neighbouring blank cells? Can anyone please throw any light on this? You are misstating what you're doing. In every version of Excel with transition formula entry enabled OR disabled, if you type only two double quotes and press enter, Excel will display two double quotes in the cell (unless you've given the cell a number format that hides text or set the text and background colors the same). If you then copy that cell and paste special as values into a different cell, that cell will also display the two double quotes. It's pretty obvious you mean you entered the formula ="". If you copy cells containing that formula and paste special as values into other cells, those other cells may appear blank, but they contain text. THEY ARE *NOT* BLANK CELLS. This is a fundamental point when using Excel: appearances are often deceiving. There are a great many types of cell contents that appear blank but aren't. This particular type is the constant zero length string. It differs from true blank cells by having a .Value property of "" rather than Empty. |
#6
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David
Julie did read your question and has posted again reiterating that "" is never blank no matter what you wish it to be or how you manipulate it. Gord Dibben Excel MVP On Tue, 1 Feb 2005 07:09:04 -0800, "David" wrote: Julie, With respect, please read my question. I am asking about "" after copy and paste values Thanks "JulieD" wrote: Hi David "" doesn't make a cell blank - it adds a zero length text string into the cell. generally the ISBLANK function is used to check if a cell is blank or not - a cell with "" in it will return FALSE on this test. Cheers JulieD "David" wrote in message ... Greetings and thanks in advance for your time. The following scenario captures the essence of the problem: In an empty spreadsheet, if I enter "" into cell A10 and then copy and paste values, A10 appears to be blank. However, if I select cell A1 and press [end] then down arrow, cell A10 will be selected. This suggests that A10 is somehow different to it's neighbouring blank cells? Can anyone please throw any light on this? -- David |
#7
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You can see what's left in that cell after you did the copy|paste
special|values. Turn on Tools|Options|Transition Tab|check Transition navigation keys. You'll see an apostrophe in the formula bar. (remember to toggle this option off). One way to get rid of this "junk" is: select the cells (ctrl-a, twice in xl2003) edit|Replace what: (leave blank) with: $$$$$ (any unique string) replace all then reverse it. edit|Replace what: $$$$$ (any unique string) with: (leave blank) replace all David wrote: Greetings and thanks in advance for your time. The following scenario captures the essence of the problem: In an empty spreadsheet, if I enter "" into cell A10 and then copy and paste values, A10 appears to be blank. However, if I select cell A1 and press [end] then down arrow, cell A10 will be selected. This suggests that A10 is somehow different to it's neighbouring blank cells? Can anyone please throw any light on this? -- David -- Dave Peterson |
#8
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Thanks Dave & Harlan for your help
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