Quotations and blanks cells (that aren't)...

[Ingeniero1]

I need to parse information based on part description, and one of th
characters used is a quotation mark that denote inches.
(1) How can I use the FIND, or LEFT/RIGHT/MID, etc., functions to fin
quotations marks? (Everytime I use =""" or <>""" as the criteria, X
say it is an error. I also tried using CODE(34), ASCII for ", but X
won't let me.

(2) I have empty cells (never used, 'virgin' cells) that meet th
criteria ="". Often times, however, the ="" used in COUNTIF, SUMIF, an
others do not recognize what appear to be empty/blank cell as such.
Is there a way to really clear a cell so it meets ="" ? So far I hav
tried hitting delete with the cell selected, copying another empty cel
(that met the ="") to the desired cell, but so far nothing has worked.

Thanks -

Ale

 

[swatsp0p]

Question 1:

try placing a quotation mark in a separate cell, all by itself, an
reference that cell in your FIND function, as:

=FIND(D16,E16) where D16 contains the quote mark and E16 contains you
data with the inches quote mark. Note that FIND only returns th
location of the character within the cell as a numeric value.
Therefore, you may need to use an IF statement to validate that FIN
returns a value, e.g.:

IF(FIND(D16,E16)>0,"Do This","Not Found")

Question 2:

I am not sure why you would want to SUMIF blank cells (my guess is th
Sum is zero?), but you can use COUNTBLANK to count the number o
'blank' cells within a range. Maybe you could give an example of
formula you are using, the results received and the expected results t
facilitate further help on this problem.

Good Luck

Bruc

 

[Ingeniero1]

Bruce,

(1) Referencing the quotation mark by putting it in a cell works!
Thanks!

(2) I need to count and or find empty cells because the list contains
model numbers, but sometimes a number has not been assigned and th
ecell is left blank, and I need to tally those occurrences as well.

I tried to replace the blank cells with the string "Not Assigned", but
XL did not find any empty cells! I have been successful at doing this
sometimes, but others it is as though that are a non-printable or
non-visible contents that I can't delete or replace with a known empty
cell. Frustrating!

Alex

 

[swatsp0p]

You would be better off to use Auto-Filter on your model number data
and Select "Blanks". This will show all rows within this range tha
have a blank cell in Model Number.

HTH

Bruc