Getting Excel to choose a value if it is there

[NJS1982]

Hi, I have a list of codes in column T and column U.
Some lines have codes in both cells, some in only U.
If a code does not appear in column T (all that is there is a VLookup formula), I need to use the code that is in column U.
The formula I am using is this (looking at row 161 in this instance):

=IF(T161<>0,T161,U161)

This seems to work with some lines, but others it is just returning a blank output. Any ideas why?

The codes are all being pulled through from elsewhere, via VLookup. In addition, they are codes with letters and numbers.

Thanks!

 

[inactiveuserps07]

@NJS1982, if your codes contain alphanumeric data, then you can't treat them as a number. When you use "T161<>0," the IF() function is literally checking whether or not the value zero exists in that cell.

Try this:

IF(T161<>"",T161,U161)

 

[NJS1982]

Thanks for the reply @ErikTyler. So, is there a similar formula to try and work out if the cell is blank? I am struggling as I have a formula in cell T161, even though the outcome of the formula in T is blank.

 

[inactiveuserps07]

The formula I presented is checking whether T161 holds a value of null, not whether it is blank. So if the formula in T161 results in a null value, then that formula will move to the FALSE clause and show the value of U161.

If you have a formula in T161, why do you want to check whether it is blank? You already know it isn't (i.e., it contains a formula).

However, if for some reason you need to check whether the cell were blank (i.e., there is no value and no formula in it):

=IF(ISBLANK(T161),U161,T161)

Note the reversal of the middle and last arguments.