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I have an array formula that has an =IFERROR function, and by all appearances it is working. However, when I reference the cell I think as blank in another function, it clearly is not.

As you can see below, the function in C38 checks if C39 is blank and returns FALSE. However, C39 appears to be blank, and the formula in C39 (shown in the task bar) makes me believe that it is blank. But the formula in A36 =IF(OR(ISBLANK(C35),ISBLANK(C39)),"",IF(LEFT(C35,$A$5)=LEFT(C39,$A$5),"",COUNTIF(C37:$C$202,LEFT(C37,$A$5)&"*"))) is clearly returning the =COUNTIF function, meaning (again) that C39 is in fact not blank. How can I work out what the value of C39 is? How can I make the formula in A36 give me a blank when checking C35 and C39?

ps. The array formula is in every ODD column C cell

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eyeScream
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  • Possible duplicate of [Return empty cell from formula in Excel](https://stackoverflow.com/q/1119614/11683) – GSerg Oct 26 '19 at 19:32

1 Answers1

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ISBLANK() test whether the cell itself is blank, not the value. A formula that returns an empty string will still have something in the cell, the formula.

ISBLANK() only returns TRUE if there is nothing in the cell, no value and no formula.

To test use:

=C39<>""

This will work on blank cells as well as formula that return an empty string.

Scott Craner
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