[discussion_vu] [Tips for Computer] How to create formula that only reference non-blank cells?

Tips for Computer - How to create formula that only reference non-blank cells?

When you are creating formulas to calculate things like a percentage increase or decrease
from the previous period you generally do not want to include empty cells in making this
calculation. For example, let's assume we are calculating the percentage increase in the
inventory counts from one month to the next. If either the previous month has a no entry
because the current month is the first month we have carried this inventory item then it
makes no to calculate a percentage increase. The following formulas can be used
to deal with these types of issues and avoid error messages for those instances.

You can use the ISBLANK function to test for blank cells as shown in the following
formula:

=IF(ISBLANK(A1)=FALSE,A1,"")

To return text values only, use the ISTEXT function as shown in the following formula:

=IF(ISTEXT(A1),A1,"")

To return numeric values only, use the ISNUMBER function as shown in the following
formula:

=IF(ISNUMBER(A1),A1,"")

If you are trying to trap errors use the following formula:

=IF(ISERROR(A1/B1),"",A1/B1)

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Posted By Blogger to Tips for Computer at 2/22/2012 06:07:00 AM

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