f9Foc‖Handling of Empty Cells

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5nuFF‖

# VYKrS‖Handling of Empty Cells

HEpx6‖In older versions of the software, empty cells were forced to numeric 0 in some contexts and to empty string in others, except in direct comparison where =A1=0 and =A1="" both resulted in TRUE if A1 was empty. Emptiness now is inherited until used, so both =VLOOKUP(...)=0 and =VLOOKUP(...)="" give TRUE if the lookup resulted in an empty cell being returned.

vePpg‖A simple reference to an empty cell is still displayed as numeric 0 but is not necessarily of type numeric anymore, so also comparisons with the referencing cell work as expected.

sHJvH‖For the following examples, A1 contains a number, B1 is empty, C1 contains the reference to B1:

DFVNU‖Case | 5pQ8p‖Formula | siSXA‖Results and comments
--- | --- | ---
y3GkG‖A1: 1 B1: <Empty> | C1: =B1 | y3NDD‖Displays 0
=B1=0 | x3Fkf‖TRUE
=B1="" | TRUE
=C1=0 | TRUE
=C1="" | jGD6d‖TRUE (previously was FALSE)
rLs5m‖=ISNUMBER(B1) | aBBEF‖FALSE
8taRG‖=ISNUMBER(C1) | srU2T‖FALSE (previously was TRUE)
gUyG5‖=ISNUMBER(VLOOKUP(1;A1:C1;2)) | eHH8h‖FALSE (B1)
24jXb‖=ISNUMBER(VLOOKUP(1;A1:C1;3)) | TGuuU‖FALSE (C1, previously was TRUE)
td3QN‖=ISTEXT(B1) | FALSE
usWWT‖=ISTEXT(C1) | TRUE
MoQBw‖=ISTEXT(VLOOKUP(1;A1:C1;2)) | DCsDd‖FALSE (B1, previously was TRUE)
aBByS‖=ISTEXT(VLOOKUP(1;A1:C1;3)) | wyXe6‖FALSE (C1)
kkBGf‖=ISBLANK(B1) | TRUE
7m34D‖=ISBLANK(C1) | TRUE
NCnu6‖=ISBLANK(VLOOKUP(1;A1:C1;2)) | YXdDe‖TRUE (B1, previously was FALSE)
us9L8‖=ISBLANK(VLOOKUP(1;A1:C1;3)) | 6PxBF‖FALSE (C1)

wAsrJ‖Note that Microsoft Excel behaves different and always returns a number as the result of a reference to an empty cell or a formula cell with the result of an empty cell. For example:

YCDpa‖Case | t8EJk‖Formula | 23UDU‖Results and comments
--- | --- | ---
87W9A‖A1: <Empty> | B1: =A1 | NaWZa‖Displays 0, but is just a reference to an empty cell.
GJtfQ‖=ISNUMBER(A1) | FALSE
GZbTC‖=ISTEXT(A1) | FALSE
=A1=0 | TRUE
=A1="" | TRUE
ag84f‖=ISNUMBER(B1) | XHXqn‖FALSE (Microsoft Excel: TRUE)
ndXeg‖=ISTEXT(B1) | FALSE
=B1=0 | TRUE
=B1="" | xykic‖TRUE (Microsoft Excel: FALSE)
JGAPT‖C1: =VLOOKUP(...) with empty cell result | 7rzAj‖displays empty (Microsoft Excel: displays 0)
QZZQE‖=ISNUMBER(VLOOKUP(...)) | FALSE
aioag‖=ISTEXT(VLOOKUP(...)) | FALSE
DuoyG‖=ISNUMBER(C1) | 8qC4h‖FALSE (Microsoft Excel: TRUE)
2nREc‖=ISTEXT(C1) | FALSE

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