If/then statement results in 0 instead of blank

**butterfly123** · 06-24-2011, 12:42 PM

I am having the a problem. I am using this formula and it is bringing up text,so not sure why it brings up a 0 instead of a blank. In most cells it results in a blank, but in others, it brings up a 0. I'm not sure how to correct

=IF($T$8>0,VLOOKUP($S$8,Tubemaster!$A$11:$P$1986,12,FALSE),"")

Diana

**Paul** · 06-24-2011, 01:08 PM

Hi Diana,

Are some of the cells (the ones showing zeros) formatted as Number instead of Text or General?

**butterfly123** · 06-24-2011, 01:26 PM

They were but I reformatted them to text

**NBVC** · 06-24-2011, 01:30 PM

If you have a match in the first column of the Vlookup table to the lookup value and the corresponding cell column 12 of the vlookup table is blank, then Vlookup will return a 0.

The best bet is to format the result cells as custom: 0;-0;;@ so that 0's are hidden.

**butterfly123** · 06-24-2011, 01:43 PM

OK NBVC do you have any recommendations on how to do that?

**NBVC** · 06-24-2011, 01:48 PM

How to do what?

To format the cell as I described, you select the cells, right-click and select Format Cells. In the Number tab, select Custom and enter 0;-0;;@ in the Type field.