I'm working with a worksheet of cells with general information (text) that I
linked to various cells on worksheets within a workbook. I created the
formula below and it works but I'm not sure it is the most accurate way to
write the formula.

=IF('General Info'!C20,'General Info'!C2,"")

All linked cells contain text, not numbers, so I'm questioning the 0. Any
better alternatives?

Although Excel sees a blank cell as zero and you will probably get away with
your method, I think you would be safer with.

=IF('General Info'!C2<"",'General Info'!C2,"")


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

On Fri, 5 Feb 2010 16:11:01 -0800, --Viewpoint
wrote:

I'm working with a worksheet of cells with general information (text) that I
linked to various cells on worksheets within a workbook. I created the
formula below and it works but I'm not sure it is the most accurate way to
write the formula.

=IF('General Info'!C20,'General Info'!C2,"")

All linked cells contain text, not numbers, so I'm questioning the 0. Any
better alternatives?

What your formula is doing in layman terms is... If the contents of 'General
Info'!C2 has a text string or a number in it that is greater than zero, then
put this value, otherwise if it blank, zero, a negative number, etc. then put
null / nothing. Is this what you wanted it to do ? Maybe I need more detail
to understand your query.

You may need to look at functions like ISBLANK(), ISTEXT(), ISNONTEXT(),
ISNUMBER(), T(), etc.

Hope this helps !

David

"--Viewpoint" wrote:

I'm working with a worksheet of cells with general information (text) that I
linked to various cells on worksheets within a workbook. I created the
formula below and it works but I'm not sure it is the most accurate way to
write the formula.

=IF('General Info'!C20,'General Info'!C2,"")

All linked cells contain text, not numbers, so I'm questioning the 0. Any
better alternatives?

Thank you for responding. Yes, it is giving me what I want but I wanted to
know if there is a more accurate way to work with text. I'll take your
advice to learn more about the functions you suggest. I want to learn more
about improving my knowledge and using functions as efficiently as possible.
Again, thank you.

"David-Melbourne-Australia" wrote:

What your formula is doing in layman terms is... If the contents of 'General
Info'!C2 has a text string or a number in it that is greater than zero, then
put this value, otherwise if it blank, zero, a negative number, etc. then put
null / nothing. Is this what you wanted it to do ? Maybe I need more detail
to understand your query.

You may need to look at functions like ISBLANK(), ISTEXT(), ISNONTEXT(),
ISNUMBER(), T(), etc.

Hope this helps !

David

"--Viewpoint" wrote:

I'm working with a worksheet of cells with general information (text) that I
linked to various cells on worksheets within a workbook. I created the
formula below and it works but I'm not sure it is the most accurate way to
write the formula.

=IF('General Info'!C20,'General Info'!C2,"")

All linked cells contain text, not numbers, so I'm questioning the 0. Any
better alternatives?

I forgot to mention in my previous response that you made it more clear to me
why the zero works in the if statement. That was the main purpose of my
inquiry.

"David-Melbourne-Australia" wrote:

What your formula is doing in layman terms is... If the contents of 'General
Info'!C2 has a text string or a number in it that is greater than zero, then
put this value, otherwise if it blank, zero, a negative number, etc. then put
null / nothing. Is this what you wanted it to do ? Maybe I need more detail
to understand your query.

You may need to look at functions like ISBLANK(), ISTEXT(), ISNONTEXT(),
ISNUMBER(), T(), etc.

Hope this helps !

David

"--Viewpoint" wrote:

I'm working with a worksheet of cells with general information (text) that I
linked to various cells on worksheets within a workbook. I created the
formula below and it works but I'm not sure it is the most accurate way to
write the formula.

=IF('General Info'!C20,'General Info'!C2,"")

All linked cells contain text, not numbers, so I'm questioning the 0. Any
better alternatives?