Hi all,

I am working on a spreadsheet that is a little over 10000 lines long.
Several columns seem to not have any data, but I am reluctant to just delete
them. What sort of function can I used to see if there is any data in a
given column that will just return the result of true or false, text present
or not present?

Thank-you for your help.

--Jim

=COUNTA(range)

counts the number of cells that are not empty. If you want a true or false
use this

=COUNTA(range)0

"Spike9458" wrote:

Hi all,

I am working on a spreadsheet that is a little over 10000 lines long.
Several columns seem to not have any data, but I am reluctant to just delete
them. What sort of function can I used to see if there is any data in a
given column that will just return the result of true or false, text present
or not present?

Thank-you for your help.

--Jim

On Fri, 20 Jan 2006 12:02:26 -0500, "Spike9458"
wrote:

Hi all,

I am working on a spreadsheet that is a little over 10000 lines long.
Several columns seem to not have any data, but I am reluctant to just delete
them. What sort of function can I used to see if there is any data in a
given column that will just return the result of true or false, text present
or not present?

Thank-you for your help.

--Jim


Do you just want to know if text is present? (as you wrote) or do you really
want to know if the column contains only empty cells?

You could use the array formulas for this:

=AND(ISBLANK(G1:G5535))

to test column G. This will return FALSE if there are any entries in that
column, including formulas that return null strings, the various white-space
characters, and so forth. Otherwise it will return TRUE.

If you are looking for just text, you could use the array-formula:

=OR(ISTEXT(G1:G65535))

which will return TRUE if there is text (null strings and white-space count as
text), and false otherwise.

To enter an array-formula, after typing it into the formula bar, hold down
<ctrl<shift while hitting <enter. Excel will place braces {...} around the
formula
--ron

"Ron Rosenfeld" wrote in message
...
: On Fri, 20 Jan 2006 12:02:26 -0500, "Spike9458"
: wrote:
:
: Hi all,
:
: I am working on a spreadsheet that is a little over 10000 lines long.
: Several columns seem to not have any data, but I am reluctant to just
delete
: them. What sort of function can I used to see if there is any data in a
: given column that will just return the result of true or false, text
present
: or not present?
:
: Thank-you for your help.
:
: --Jim
:
:
: Do you just want to know if text is present? (as you wrote) or do you
really
: want to know if the column contains only empty cells?
:
: You could use the array formulas for this:
:
: =AND(ISBLANK(G1:G5535))
:
: to test column G. This will return FALSE if there are any entries in that
: column, including formulas that return null strings, the various
white-space
: characters, and so forth. Otherwise it will return TRUE.
:
: If you are looking for just text, you could use the array-formula:
:
: =OR(ISTEXT(G1:G65535))
:
: which will return TRUE if there is text (null strings and white-space
count as
: text), and false otherwise.
:
: To enter an array-formula, after typing it into the formula bar, hold down
: <ctrl<shift while hitting <enter. Excel will place braces {...} around
the
: formula
: --ron

Hi Ron,

Thanks for giving me those options. For now just need to know if the
columns were blank or not so I could delete them. It is for an email and
mailing address database.

Here's a twist for you. I'm combining two lists. One has email addresses,
one has snailmail addresses. I wish to combine the two for one database, and
will need to be able to sort out and delete the duplicates once I have the
email and snailmail addresses associated with each person correctly. I am
working with about 10500 line items, and when done will have a little over
6500.

Thanks for anything else you can help me with.

--Jim

On Fri, 20 Jan 2006 13:28:31 -0500, "Spike9458"
wrote:

Hi Ron,

Thanks for giving me those options. For now just need to know if the
columns were blank or not so I could delete them. It is for an email and
mailing address database.

In that case, I would use the ISBLANK formula.


Here's a twist for you. I'm combining two lists. One has email addresses,
one has snailmail addresses. I wish to combine the two for one database, and
will need to be able to sort out and delete the duplicates once I have the
email and snailmail addresses associated with each person correctly. I am
working with about 10500 line items, and when done will have a little over
6500.

Thanks for anything else you can help me with.

--Jim


That'll depend on how a duplicate is defined and how your data is organized.

--ron