Myrna,

I'm not, (can't), trying to answer for Aladin, but I don't understand what
you mean by:

> According to the documentation for the N function, it shouldn't work

My Help says for N:

*************************
If value is or refers to N returns
A number That number
************************

If N returns a 0 then it is the same as:

=IF(0,"Alex","Sandy")

which will return "Sandy"

Why do you find it counter-intuitive?

--
Puzzled,


Sandy
sandymann@mailinator.com
Replace@mailinator with @tiscali.co.uk


"Myrna Larson" <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:mufgj1pkdvuqjb60iet22m1ukotfcc536h@4ax.com...
> Hi, Aladin:
>
> I was going to say that doesn't work for me, but surprisingly (to me), it
> does!
>
> According to the documentation for the N function, it shouldn't work. If I
> type a 0 in B5, then write in another cell the formula =N(B5), I get 0.
> But
> your formula returns NoOrders.
>
> The question is, WHY? Let's say you have 100 in B24 and 0 in B5. N tests
> whether 0 is a number, which it is. Therefore the formula *should* return
> 100/0, and ultimately a divide-by-zero error.
>
> OTOH, if you change the formula to
>
> =IF(N(B24/B5),B24/B5,"NoOrders")
>
> you get #DIV/0! rather than NoOrders. B24/B5 in this case returns an error
> value, and N(B24/B5) returns that same error value, #DIV/0! IF seems to
> treat
> this error result as non-0, and returns the result of B24/B5, or an error.
>
> I find this behavior to be very bizarre and counter-intuitive.
>
> I would use a formula that doesn't produce all of these "surprises", maybe
> something like
>
> =IF(ISERROR(B24/B5),"NoOrders",B24/B5)
>
>
>
> On Mon, 26 Sep 2005 19:41:11 +0200, Aladin Akyurek <akyurek@xs4all.nl>
> wrote:
>
>>=IF(N(B5),B24/B5,"NoOrders")
>>
>>carl wrote:
>>> In this formula: = b24/b5
>>>
>>> If b5 is blank or zero, can the formula be written so that it will
>>> return
>>> "NoOrders" ?
>>>
>>> Thank you in advance.