Conditional Formatting - Using "is not blank"

[audiate]

Apologies if this has already been answered but searching through the posts takes a long time when people aren't descriptive with the subject line...

I want to conditionally format a cell based on the cell next to it being not blank.
I'm sure this should be easy but I couldn't find it in the Help anywhere..

thanks!

 

[Jonmo1]

Welcome to the board...

Go with the FIRST answer in this thread....

=LEN("Cell A")>0

I am attempting to format a cell ("Cell B") when another cell ("Cell A") is not blank. Using the =NOT(ISBLANK(*)) function is great.. However, Cell A contains an if-then formula, which determines if the cell is blank or not.

It seems like the ISBLANK function sees the formula, rather than the result of the formula, and returns the appropriate (in this case, undesired) ISBLANK result.

Does anyone know of a way around this? (In other words, a way for the ISBLANK function to choose based on the if-then's result, versus the if-then itself?)

I can provide further information (and an actual spreadsheet) if my explination is unclear.

Any help is greatly appreciated.

P.S. to answer the question,
The problem is that "" is NOT blank. It's a Null Text String, which actually is a Value.

Long story short, it is impossible for a formula to return a true blank.
Because the cell contains a formula, therefore it's not blank.

 

[pjrweb]

delete

 

[indiansfan]

The more I read about the "isblank", the more confused I get. I am trying to do a two step process. Today's date is in A1, A2 has a different date, B2 is blank and C2 is where I need an answer. If B2 is blank, I want C2 to display the number of days between A1 and A2. If B2 has a date there, then C2 should display the number of days between B2 and A1. Here is what I have so far:

=IF(B2="","",SUM(A1-A2,IF(B2="not Blank","")))

This only gives me the number of days if B2 is blank. Am I close or still out in left field? Your help is appreciated.

Don

 

[Jonmo1]

Try

=IF(B2="",A1-A2,A1-B2)

 

[Luka_LB]

Hi there,

I guess it's right place to ask

this is what I want excell to do
=SUMIF(additional,additional>0,Principal)

count amount in "principal" row if aproprieate cell in "additional" row is greater then null

but my "additional>0" is not apprehensible for excell

could you help me?

 

[bernieboo62]

The NOT(iSBLANK) worked brilliantly for me - thanks!!

 

[Adamonia]

Hello everyone,

I have a slight dilemma. I applied =NOT(ISBLANK(A1)) to cell A2, however, I want that formatting to go away when a number >0 is input into A2. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

 

[Adamonia]

Hello everyone,

I have a slight dilemma. I applied =NOT(ISBLANK(A1)) to cell A2, however, I want that formatting to go away when a number >0 is input into A2. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

Nevermind, I simply added a second rule to A2.

 

[Nelson461]

In a similar fashion, I am struggling as well.
I need three columns (M4:O4) to change to black when all three columns have input (M4 is a date, N4 is number, O4 is a number)

The intent is to let the user not worry about sections where inputs are done and focus on rows where inputs are needed

I've tried =LEN, =Not(isblank) but can't quite get the correct formula as the formula is treating each cell as an individual condition instead of all three needing to be true in order to format black

Any help is appreciated...

Win7, Excel 2013

 

[Jonmo1]

You would have to do

=AND(LEN($M4)>0,LEN($N4)>0,LEN($O4)>0)


Though this doesn't differentiate if the entries are dates or numbers.
Just NOT Blank.