Formula does not always recognize "" for blanks?

dana y

I have an odd one that hopefully someone can shed light on as i am going a bit crazy  

I finally figured out a formula i have been working on for few days ... 

strangest thing it seems to have been the quotes that i was using ??....

I used the quotes (directly to the left of the enter key with shift ) as a blank and i would get an unparseable error .... i then copied the quotes from the smartsheet community example and walla - they work ... 

as i was testing - see underlined below  .... the first set of quotes - copied from smartsheet ; then using various quotes on my keyboard.. and a fyi all the font is arial and the size is 12 ..

when you zoom in you can see they are indeed different .. but that leaves me with .. what quotes do i use ?  i can't always copy smartsheets community pages ha  

example: [IP Assigned (if needed)]42 = "", “”, ‘’’’, “”, ````

Chris McKay

Hi Dana,

I'd suggest looking at your regional settings in Windows or OSX as it might somehow have been modified from the default US Qwerty to something like US English International. This link should assist:

https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/4027670/windows-add-and-switch-input-and-display-language-preferences-in-windo

After that, go to the “Languages” tab in the “Regional and Language Options” window, and click on the “Details” button. Under the keyboard settings, remove the “International” option and keep the “US” option. Log off and then back in and retest your quotes.

Mike Wilday

Yeah, I have seen that issue before too. Are you creating your formulas in a word processor like Microsoft Word? Sometimes programs substitute smart-quotes in place of standard quotes and that's when I've seen that problem arise. I suggest building your formulas in a text-editor like notepad++ or notepad or something without the fancy gizmos that word processors have to make your documents smarter. Plain text editors will only use normal quotes and will help your formulas be more successful. Good catch and good luck! 

dana y

yes, you got it.  i spoke with a coworker this am and he suggested i download notepad ++ also.

 

i had no idea that quotes were different in different programs; lesson learned  

 

thanks so much for the help  

Mike Wilday

You're welcome, glad I could be of assistance.