Refering to Text in Cells
Posted by Razzie2 on January 15, 2002 2:50 PM
When using the IF function, what can I enter to refer to ANY text? For example, =IF(A3 has text instead of a value,0,A14).
Is there an operator that means any text in the cell instead of a value?
Posted by Barrie Davidson on January 15, 2002 2:54 PM
=IF(ISTEXT(A3),0,A14)
BarrieBarrie Davidson
Posted by Aladin Akyurek on January 15, 2002 3:05 PM
Barrie --
Please make that
=IF(AND(LEN(A3),ISTEXT(A3)),...
to avoid the pitfall of a formula returned blank in A3, unless such a blank is going to be counted as text.
Aladin
Posted by Razzie2 on January 15, 2002 3:08 PM
Thanks so much to the both of you. I appreciate the info about the blanks because it would have been a factor. Excel geniuses inhabit this board!
Posted by Barrie Davidson on January 15, 2002 3:09 PM
Aladin, a question
Aladin, if I use the ISTEXT function on a blank cell I get FALSE. What am I missing?
Barrie
Posted by IML on January 15, 2002 3:13 PM
methinks the dreaded "" (populated by an if statement) nt
Posted by Aladin Akyurek on January 15, 2002 3:35 PM
Re: Aladin, a question
Not quite sure, but it must be "a convention" that an empty cell (often referred to as blank) is treated as having no entry, while a formula generated "" as a string entry. The NULL string represents both cases.
Aladin
Posted by Aladin Akyurek on January 15, 2002 3:39 PM
Re: methinks the dreaded "" (populated by an if statement) -- Yep,
a killer condition for array/sumproduct formulas, which must be extended to escape them.
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