Cells Appear Blank but aren't

[Jennifer]

Why do the cells in Excel sometimes appear blank but in the function line it
shows that it has info in it?

 

[Bob Phillips]

Perhaps the formula is returning a blank.

 

[Bob Phillips]

Perhaps the formula is returning a blank.

 

[Mike H]

Hi,

Maybe the cell has a formula that's evaluating as a null string. For example

=if(a1="","",A1)

this will show as empty until you enter a value in a1

Mike

 

[Mike H]

Hi,

Maybe the cell has a formula that's evaluating as a null string. For example

=if(a1="","",A1)

this will show as empty until you enter a value in a1

Mike

 

[Harlan Grove]

Why do the cells in Excel sometimes appear blank but in the function line it
shows that it has info in it?

Simplest way: type 1 or more spaces into a cell. If there doesn't
appear to be even spaces in a cell, but Excel treats the cell as
though it contains something, this can happen when cells with formulas
evaluating to "" are pasted as values into other cells.

You could use conditional formatting to visually identify cells
containing spaces or zero-length strings using the condition formula

=AND(ISTEXT(A1),LEN(TRIM(SUBSTITUTE(A1,CHAR(160),""))=0)

and setting the background color to something unusual.

 

[Harlan Grove]

Why do the cells in Excel sometimes appear blank but in the function line it
shows that it has info in it?

Simplest way: type 1 or more spaces into a cell. If there doesn't
appear to be even spaces in a cell, but Excel treats the cell as
though it contains something, this can happen when cells with formulas
evaluating to "" are pasted as values into other cells.

You could use conditional formatting to visually identify cells
containing spaces or zero-length strings using the condition formula

=AND(ISTEXT(A1),LEN(TRIM(SUBSTITUTE(A1,CHAR(160),""))=0)

and setting the background color to something unusual.

 

[Gord Dibben]

What type of info is in the formula bar?

Maybe a formula that returns blank if a condition is not met?

=IF(A1<>12,"",A1) would look blank if A1 was not 12

Or possibly the cells have been custom formatted with 3 semi-colons ;;;
which will leave cells looking blank.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

 

[Gord Dibben]

What type of info is in the formula bar?

Maybe a formula that returns blank if a condition is not met?

=IF(A1<>12,"",A1) would look blank if A1 was not 12

Or possibly the cells have been custom formatted with 3 semi-colons ;;;
which will leave cells looking blank.


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

 

[Justin Case]

Hi.

And it could be that the text color is simply the same color as the
background. In a new worksheet, type anything in cell A1. Then format
the text color to white. It will appear empty.

Regards,
Justin

 

[Justin Case]

Hi.

And it could be that the text color is simply the same color as the
background. In a new worksheet, type anything in cell A1. Then format
the text color to white. It will appear empty.

Regards,
Justin