ISBLANK

Description

Use this function to see if a cell is empty. Supported in Chains.

This returns TRUE if the cell is empty or FALSE if the selection is not empty.

ISBLANK(value)

This function has the following arguments:

Name	Required	Description	Valid Input
`value`	Yes	The cell that you want to evaluate.	A reference to a cell, or a formula which results in one.

Use case Formula Explanation and Result

Check to see if a specific cell is empty.

=ISBLANK(A1)

This formula works in the following manner:

For this data set this formula returns TRUE. (Because A1 is empty.)

Check to see if a specific cell is empty.

=ISBLANK(A2)

This formula works in the following manner:

For this data set this formula returns FALSE. (Because A2 contains "green".)

Check if any of a set of cells is empty.

=IF(OR(ISBLANK(A1),ISBLANK(B1),ISBLANK(C1)),"Missing value")

This formula works in the following manner:

ISBLANK(A1), ISBLANK(B1), ISBLANK(C1): These check if each respective cell is empty, returning TRUE or FALSE for each.
OR(...): This function takes the results of the ISBLANK checks. It returns TRUE if *any* of the ISBLANK functions return TRUE (meaning at least one cell is blank).
IF(OR(...), "Missing value"): This function checks the result of the OR function.
- If OR is TRUE (at least one cell is blank), the IF function returns the text "Missing value".
- If OR is FALSE (none of the cells are blank), the IF function returns FALSE (because the value_if_false argument is omitted).

For this data set this formula returns Missing value. (Because A1 is empty.)

Cell ranges are not supported.
You can join multiple instances of ISBLANK to check if any of a set of cells is blank:
=IF(OR(ISBLANK(A1),ISBLANK(B1),ISBLANK(C1)),"Missing value",SUM(A1:C1))
Because OR will return TRUE if any supplied value is TRUE, the formula will display "Missing value" if any of the cells identified with an ISBLANK function return TRUE.

You can use ISBLANK in these ways:

To test for an empty cell in a dataset.
To trigger a conditional formatting rule that highlights all empty cells (see Filling only blank cells with color).
You can combine ISBLANK with the IF function to display a custom message if a cell is empty. For example, you might display "Input Required" if a cell is blank.
Instead of =ISBLANK(A1), you can use the expression =A1="".
You can combine ISBLANK with the NOT function to reverse the logic to "is not blank". Example: =NOT(ISBLANK(A1))
Instead of =NOT(ISBLANK(A1)), you can use the expression =A1<>"".
If you want to count blank cells, use COUNTBLANK.