You shouldn't be getting a VALUE message simply trying to add or subtract
from cells that may be blank. But

=IF(AND(ISBLANK(C1),ISBLANK(D1)),"",C1-D1)

is an example of how to choose whether or not to proceed with a calculation.

You can change AND to OR if you don't want any calculation done unless both
C1 and D1 aren't blank.



"Shooter" <Shooter@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:51FB9C63-0EE7-4DB6-A8F4-9489D7CD369B@microsoft.com...
> I am using 3 columns as follows:
>
> C D
> E
> 1 Budget Actual
> Variance
> 3,000
>
> I input values into cells C and D. Column D(Variance) is simply C-D. In
some
> cases the cells in column D will be blank. I would like to write a simple
> formula in column E that will give me the value of C-D and will prevent a
> #Value error message if there is no value in C or D.
>
> Thanks for your help.
>
> Shooter