Difference between IsEmpty and IsBlank and ="" ??

[9tanstaafl9]

Could someone please tell me the difference between IsEmpty and isBlank and =""? I got a type mismatch error in one place where I had used ="". When I changed it to isEmpty(activecell) my macro ran fine.

I'm trying to learn and do things the right way, and I'm not sure why it works now, and whether or not I should fix my other instances of ="" even thought the code is working. When is each use appropriate?

In case it's relevant, USUALLY (though not always) I'm trying to test to see if my query returned anything.

Thanks!

[Jonmo1]

Depends on what you're testing...

ISEMPTY is for testing if a variable has a value assigned to it...
If a value has been assigned to the variable (even a value of "") then it is NOT empty. If no value has been assigned to the variable, it IS Empty.

If you use ISEMPTY to test a RANGE, it works the same as ISBLANK.

IsBlank and ="" should be used to test if a RANGE is blank.
="" will count Forumula Blanks as blank, where IsBlank will not. IsBlank will consider a formula blank as NOT blank.

Hope that clears up a little..

[9tanstaafl9]

Depends on what you're testing...

ISEMPTY is for testing if a variable has a value assigned to it...
If a value has been assigned to the variable (even a value of "") then it is NOT empty. If no value has been assigned to the variable, it IS Empty.

If you use ISEMPTY to test a RANGE, it works the same as ISBLANK.

IsBlank and ="" should be used to test if a RANGE is blank.
="" will count Forumula Blanks as blank, where IsBlank will not. IsBlank will consider a formula blank as NOT blank.

Hope that clears up a little..

Thanks. What you say makes good sense, but it doesn't seem to match what I was seeing.

My macro had inserted subtotals, and I was trying to make a subtotal description appear in a cell that would normally be blank because the subtotalling feature put the description in a column I wasn't displaying. There doesn't appear to be a formula in that cell, but ="" didn't work and isEmpty did.

 
Dim Rng As Long
Dim i As Long
Rng = Range(Range("b16"), Range("b16").End(xlDown)).Offset(0, 2).Rows.Count - 1
Range("d16").Activate
For i = 1 To Rng
If IsEmpty(ActiveCell) Then    'You can replace "" with 0 to delete rows with 'the value zero
    ActiveCell.Value = "Phase " & ActiveCell.Offset(0, -2) & ":"
    ActiveCell.HorizontalAlignment = xlRight
    ActiveCell.Offset(1, 0).Activate
Else
ActiveCell.Offset(1, 0).Activate
End If
Next i

Or maybe I'm not understanding what you mean by "formula blank"?

Thanks,
Jennifer

[Aladin Akyurek]

Thanks. What you say makes good sense, but it doesn't seem to match what I was seeing.

My macro had inserted subtotals, and I was trying to make a subtotal description appear in a cell that would normally be blank because the subtotalling feature put the description in a column I wasn't displaying. There doesn't appear to be a formula in that cell, but ="" didn't work and isEmpty did.

 
Dim Rng As Long
Dim i As Long
Rng = Range(Range("b16"), Range("b16").End(xlDown)).Offset(0, 2).Rows.Count - 1
Range("d16").Activate
For i = 1 To Rng
If IsEmpty(ActiveCell) Then    'You can replace "" with 0 to delete rows with 'the value zero
    ActiveCell.Value = "Phase " & ActiveCell.Offset(0, -2) & ":"
    ActiveCell.HorizontalAlignment = xlRight
    ActiveCell.Offset(1, 0).Activate
Else
ActiveCell.Offset(1, 0).Activate
End If
Next i

Or maybe I'm not understanding what you mean by "formula blank"?

Thanks,
Jennifer

A2 left unused

A3 houses

=""

which is a formula blank.

B2, copy down:

=ISBLANK(A2)

C2, copy down:

=A2=""

[Jonmo1]

"formula blank" is a formula that returns blank on one condition, but something else on a nother condition, like

=IF(A1="","",A1)

If A1 ="" then the formula will also return ""

[9tanstaafl9]

"formula blank" is a formula that returns blank on one condition, but something else on a nother condition, like

=IF(A1="","",A1)

If A1 ="" then the formula will also return ""

Thank you...

[9tanstaafl9]

A2 left unused

A3 houses

=""

which is a formula blank.

B2, copy down:

=ISBLANK(A2)

C2, copy down:

=A2=""

At first I thought you wrote some sort of weird Excel Haiku, but I realized you were telling me to do something, which I did and now it all makes sense. Thanks.