Circular Reference

[Bruce A. Julseth]

I want to use a formula like the following:

=IF(P7=$O$4,IF(R7="",NOW(),R7),"")

The reference to R7 to the false condition gives me a circular reference. I
expected this. What I want to do is leave the Cell unchanged if there is
something in it already (false condition).

How can I do this?

Thanks....

 

[Ryan H]

The FALSE condition of the IF Function is optional. Try:

=IF(P7=$O$4,IF(R7="",NOW()),"")

Hope this helps! If so, let me know, click "YES" below.

 

[Bruce A. Julseth]

Your suggestion didn't work but it's my fault.

Why is it my fault? Because I failed to mention that the formula resides in
R7. So, the circular reference still exits.

So the situation is:

- The formula resides in R7
- If the values at P7 and O4 are NOT equal I want the formula to return
a blank.
- If the values at P7 and O4 are equal, I need to test if the value in
R7. If it's blank, I want to set it to "NOW()".
If it's NOT blank, I don't want to change it.

So, the formula I created was =IF(P7=$O$4,IF(R7="",NOW(),R7),"")


Can I do this WITHOUT dropping into VBA?

Thanks for your help..

 

[keiji kounoike]

No, you can not do that without using VBA. Any formulas can't have a
reference to the cell where the formula resides. a simple formula like
=R7+1 in R7 can not return a correct value.

Keiji