Identifying blank values

The BLANK() function can be used to identify a blank, or empty, value in a field. It can also be used to output an empty value (nothing) in a formula. Typically, BLANK() is used within an IF statement. This article is part of a guided course which you can view here.

Finding an empty field

To check if a field is empty using BLANK(), use a formula structure like this:

IF ({Field A} = BLANK() , "Field A is empty" , "Field A has some value in it" )

If there is any value in the field, it will evaluate as true, and otherwise, false.

Outputting a blank value

There are two ways you can output a blank value in a field. Let's adjust the same formula used before to only output a message if Field A has a value in it.

IF ({Field A} = BLANK(),  BLANK(),  "Field A has some value in it" )

As an alternative to using BLANK(), you could re-write the same formula above to instead use empty quotes ("").

IF (Condition, Value if True , "" )

This will result in the exact same output as using BLANK().

Blank values in IF statements

When using IF statements, there are often times when you want to output some value if the condition evaluates as positive, and otherwise, show nothing. As a reminder, here is the structure of every basic IF statement:

IF(
  Condition, 
    Value if true,
    Value if false
)

You can use BLANK() to do so, like this:

IF(
  Condition, 
    Value if true,
    BLANK()
)

However, you can simplify that statement by removing the ELSEcondition altogether:

IF(
  Condition, 
    Value if true,
)