Change the cell reference in the formula to another cell that doesn’t have a zero (0) or blank value. Now you can see that the formula above returns 0. Hello, I read through the comments and I have a solution but it begs more questions. Hello, On the formula below, if there is no corresponding value in AZ3:BM3 it returns a 0 (zero) and I would like it to return a blank cell. Re: can formula return a blank not a zero when the referenced cell is blank Originally Posted by fruit&veg hi, that works in returning a blank for a blank, but also returns a blank when it should return a number. For example, if the cell you are checking is A1, the formula will be =OR(Len(A1)=0, Isblank(A1)). To understand this put the below date 30/12/1899 in Cell B1. To do this, select the cell, click Edit, and then click Clear All. And then press Enter key, you will get a blank cell instead of the 0, see screenshot:. 1. This can also be used to show (an apparently blank) cell when a VLOOKUP of INDEX/MATCH wants to return a zero after encountering a blank cell to return. For instance, if you have the formula =A3, then the formula returns the contents of cell A3, unless cell A3 is blank. In addition, you can also check whether a cell contains a zero-length string by using the LEN function. Enter #N/A in the cell that’s referenced as the divisor in the formula, which will change the formula result to #N/A to indicate the divisor value isn’t available. In the above formula, D2 is the criterion which you want to return its relative value, A2:B10 is the data range you use, the number 2 indicates which column that the matched value is returned. To work around this issue, clear the zero-length string from the cell. For instance, if you have the formula =A3, then the formula returns the contents of cell A3, unless cell A3 is blank. The IF formula will check if the length value is 0 or not, if it is equal to 0, then return blank value, otherwise, return the matched value. Make sure the divisor in the function or formula isn’t zero or a blank cell. The IFERROR function will check if the returned value by IF is #N/A, if true, return blank value. Related Functions Here as you can see, the Cell A1 is Blank. Thanks in advance! If you have a formula in a worksheet, and the cell referenced by the formula is blank, then the formula still returns a zero value. This can cause problems when the lookup table contains actual zero values, because it suggests that blank cells in the lookup table also contain zeros, when they in fact are empty. This is not only nonsense in itself, but also a violation of the very fundamental "transitivity of the equality relation". Then why B1 minus A1 returns some value? If the length is equal to 0, it indicates that the matching value is blank. Notes:. If you have a formula in a worksheet, and the cell referenced by the formula is blank, then the formula still returns a zero value. Google Sheets considers blank cells in it contains a date input 30/12/1899. =(A1="") and =(A1=0") both return TRUE for a blank cell despite the fact that =(""=0) returns FALSE. To work around this problem you can test the result of VLOOKUP explicitly with the IF function , then return a custom result if you find an empty string. They don't worry about logic or … In that case, the formula returns a value of zero. Spreadsheets worry about compatibility with Excel. 2. Even if it returns an empty string, it is still treated by other formulas as if it contained zero. 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