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Checking for a Value in a Cell
Summary: Sometimes it is necessary to know whether a cell contains a numeric value before you perform some operation on the cell contents. This is where the ISNUMBER function comes in handy, as described in this tip. (This tip works with Microsoft Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, and Excel 2003.)
If you need to base a calculation on whether a cell has a number in it or not, you can use the ISNUMBER worksheet function. This function returns True if the target cell contains a numeric value, or False if it contains anything else. For instance, if you want to do a calculation based on whether cell A3 contains a number, you could use the following:
=IF(ISNUMBER(A3),(A3*12)/52,"Indeterminate")
This example results in the cell containing the result of (A3 * 12) / 52, but only if A3 contains a number. If it does not (for instance, it is blank or contains text), then the cell contains the text "Indeterminate."
Tip #2113 applies to Microsoft Excel versions: 97 2000 2002 2003
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