Not sure why you could not get the formula to work (i.e. couldn't get the brackets). You should either get the brackets or a message box saying there's an issue with the formula. The post is marked solved. Did you figure it out after this post or run into this problem after you marked it solved?

Also, In your example your "blank" cells are not really blank. They do not contain "", they contain " ". You need to revolve your formula around that or remove the spaces.