Return truly blank cell, not ""

[biocat]

I've searched around for this but can't find a suitable answer. Is there a way to return (in an if statement) a truly blank value? I have a long list that is generated by an if statement and I want to be able to CTRL-SHIFT-DOWN-ARROW select just the cells with values. When the if statement returns "" for a blank cell they still get selected with CTRL-SHIFT-DOWN-ARROW. Thanks!

 

[sheetspread]

You can't without VBA

There are many other options, however, such as the filter.

 

[Rick Rothstein]

I've searched around for this but can't find a suitable answer. Is there a way to return (in an if statement) a truly blank value? I have a long list that is generated by an if statement and I want to be able to CTRL-SHIFT-DOWN-ARROW select just the cells with values. When the if statement returns "" for a blank cell they still get selected with CTRL-SHIFT-DOWN-ARROW. Thanks!

What is displayed in the cells having values... numbers or text?

 

[biocat]

Text is returned.

 

[biocat]

You can't without VBA

There are many other options, however, such as the filter.

Thanks I was to make a workaround using the filter as you suggested; I need to refresh the filter whenever a change is made but I can live with that.

You mentioned there are many other options - I'd be curious as to what these are.

 

[sheetspread]

You can return a 1/0 error instead of "", then with F5(Goto)-Special select everything else, or a small(if()) formula which acts as a filter, or copy/paste the whole set, then use a len() formula which returns zero for true blanks and zero length strings.