How to Use the ISBLANK Function in Excel
There are a number of different ways you can use ISBLANK for all sorts of ends, but a simple example situation is to find whether a range of cells are empty or filled. This can be very useful if you need a database to be complete, but combing through it by hand would take a while. In this example we’ll be using a sample data set that includes a range of Data that could represent anything in reality. In the B column we use the following formula: Copying and pasting that formula throughout the entire Needs Data Column supplants the cell for the successive cell in the corresponding Data range. This returns a result of False in any rows that do have data, and True in cells that don’t suggesting data must be entered. This is an extremely simple example, but could easily be applied to make sure that a cell is truly empty (rather than just appearing so with spaces or line breaks), or combined with other functions like IF or OR for more expansive and nuanced uses.
How to Use the ISBLANK Function for Conditional Formatting
Determining if a cell is blank can be extremely useful, but if you don’t want to have a long list of FALSE and TRUE text in another column, you can always use conditional formatting. Taking our original example, we can apply the same formula to a conditional formatting rule, which gives us the original list, but with color coded cells to highlight that they are empty.
What Is the ISBLANK Function?
The ISBLANK formula checks to see if a cell is blank. That is, it looks to see whether there has been any entry in a cell or not (that includes spaces, line breaks, or white text you can’t see) and returns a value of false, or true, respectively. The generic formula for it is: The A1 here, can be supplanted for any range or cell reference.
