Detecting blank cells through vlookup

Question

ISBLANK detects blank cells, but returns FALSE for cells with formulae. I need to detect blank cells that has been looked up through VLOOKUP.

Example, A1 .. F7:

1  foo     =isblank(b1)  =vlookup(a1,a$1:b$9,2)  =isblank(d1)
2  a       =isblank(b2)  =vlookup(a2,a$1:b$9,2)  =isblank(d2)
3  0       =isblank(b3)  =vlookup(a3,a$1:b$9,2)  =isblank(d3)
4  42      =isblank(b4)  =vlookup(a4,a$1:b$9,2)  =isblank(d4)
5  ="bar"  =isblank(b5)  =vlookup(a5,a$1:b$9,2)  =isblank(d5)
6  =""     =isblank(b6)  =vlookup(a6,a$1:b$9,2)  =isblank(d6)
7          =isblank(b7)  =vlookup(a7,a$1:b$9,2)  =isblank(d7)

Results:

1  foo     FALSE         foo                     FALSE
2  a       FALSE         a                       FALSE
3  0       FALSE         0                       FALSE
4  42      FALSE         42                      FALSE
5  ="bar"  FALSE         bar                     FALSE
6  =""     FALSE                                 FALSE
7          TRUE                                  FALSE

I tried a workaround with LEN, but that will return 1 for blank cells (blank evaluates numerically to 0 and LEN converts this to text before checking length). There is also the problem in row 6 where LEN (correctly) returns 0.

Is there a way?

I am primarily using openoffice and libreoffice, but this should also apply to excel.

Gary's Student Gary's Student · Accepted Answer · 2014-05-11T12:10:22

If you need something like =VLOOKUP() that can also find blanks, consider using MATCH and INDEX.

Detecting blank cells through vlookup

1 Answers