Empty Cell vs Blank Cell

Is there a way to differentiate an empty cell (cell with no formula or text etc) from a blank cell (Cell with a formula result of "" in it?

The isblank formula doesn't work as it sees them both the same.

My goal is to use an if/then situation to bring attention to rows/cells that have absolutely nothing in it vs ones that have a formula giving the result of "" which is blank, not empty.

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Accepted answers

AnthroTim

Hi,

There is no formula in Smartsheet that detects if a cell contains a formula which is outputting nothing (at least as far as I'm aware and with a bit of testing!)

The only thing I can think of is to ensure formulas never output nothing - where they are outputting nothing, put an output of some kind i.e. a period/full stop

You can then detect that and highlight any fields that are genuinely totally empty or are outputting the 'nothing' proxy character.

Might be worth registering this as an enhancement request

Tim

anthrotechnic.com

All comments

AnthroTim

Hi,

There is no formula in Smartsheet that detects if a cell contains a formula which is outputting nothing (at least as far as I'm aware and with a bit of testing!)

The only thing I can think of is to ensure formulas never output nothing - where they are outputting nothing, put an output of some kind i.e. a period/full stop

You can then detect that and highlight any fields that are genuinely totally empty or are outputting the 'nothing' proxy character.

Might be worth registering this as an enhancement request

Tim

anthrotechnic.com

M. Lynn

@AnthroTim Thanks for the reply... that's what I was thinking. I was trying to avoid adding a character like a "." or something similar because I already had tons of formulas saying things like "=if(isblank(.... but I did add "-" to my results in lieu of the "" I had... just had to go back and fix all the others. Was hoping but I expected it didn't exist.

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