5nuFF‖

VYKrS‖Handling of Empty Cells

HEpx6‖In older versions of the software, empty cells were forced to numeric 0 in some contexts and to empty string in others, except in direct comparison where =A1=0 and =A1="" both resulted in TRUE if A1 was empty. Emptiness now is inherited until used, so both =VLOOKUP(...)=0 and =VLOOKUP(...)="" give TRUE if the lookup resulted in an empty cell being returned.

vePpg‖A simple reference to an empty cell is still displayed as numeric 0 but is not necessarily of type numeric anymore, so also comparisons with the referencing cell work as expected.

sHJvH‖For the following examples, A1 contains a number, B1 is empty, C1 contains the reference to B1:

DFVNU‖Case

5pQ8p‖Formula

siSXA‖Results and comments

y3GkG‖A1: 1
B1: <Empty>

C1: =B1

y3NDD‖Displays 0

=B1=0

x3Fkf‖TRUE

=B1=""

TRUE

=C1=0

TRUE

=C1=""

jGD6d‖TRUE (previously was FALSE)

rLs5m‖=ISNUMBER(B1)

aBBEF‖FALSE

8taRG‖=ISNUMBER(C1)

srU2T‖FALSE (previously was TRUE)

gUyG5‖=ISNUMBER(VLOOKUP(1;A1:C1;2))

eHH8h‖FALSE (B1)

24jXb‖=ISNUMBER(VLOOKUP(1;A1:C1;3))

TGuuU‖FALSE (C1, previously was TRUE)

td3QN‖=ISTEXT(B1)

FALSE

usWWT‖=ISTEXT(C1)

TRUE

MoQBw‖=ISTEXT(VLOOKUP(1;A1:C1;2))

DCsDd‖FALSE (B1, previously was TRUE)

aBByS‖=ISTEXT(VLOOKUP(1;A1:C1;3))

wyXe6‖FALSE (C1)

kkBGf‖=ISBLANK(B1)

TRUE

7m34D‖=ISBLANK(C1)

TRUE

NCnu6‖=ISBLANK(VLOOKUP(1;A1:C1;2))

YXdDe‖TRUE (B1, previously was FALSE)

us9L8‖=ISBLANK(VLOOKUP(1;A1:C1;3))

6PxBF‖FALSE (C1)


Note Icon

wAsrJ‖Note that Microsoft Excel behaves different and always returns a number as the result of a reference to an empty cell or a formula cell with the result of an empty cell. For example:


YCDpa‖Case

t8EJk‖Formula

23UDU‖Results and comments

87W9A‖A1: <Empty>

B1: =A1

NaWZa‖Displays 0, but is just a reference to an empty cell.

GJtfQ‖=ISNUMBER(A1)

FALSE

GZbTC‖=ISTEXT(A1)

FALSE

=A1=0

TRUE

=A1=""

TRUE

ag84f‖=ISNUMBER(B1)

XHXqn‖FALSE (Microsoft Excel: TRUE)

ndXeg‖=ISTEXT(B1)

FALSE

=B1=0

TRUE

=B1=""

xykic‖TRUE (Microsoft Excel: FALSE)

JGAPT‖C1: =VLOOKUP(...) with empty cell result

7rzAj‖displays empty (Microsoft Excel: displays 0)

QZZQE‖=ISNUMBER(VLOOKUP(...))

FALSE

aioag‖=ISTEXT(VLOOKUP(...))

FALSE

DuoyG‖=ISNUMBER(C1)

8qC4h‖FALSE (Microsoft Excel: TRUE)

2nREc‖=ISTEXT(C1)

FALSE