ISBLANK in Excel: check if a cell is empty

Syntax

=ISBLANK(A2)

TRUE if A2 is empty, FALSE if it holds anything.

With IF

=IF(ISBLANK(C2),"Not paid","Paid")

The opposite test: =IF(NOT(ISBLANK(C2)),...). See IF not blank.

Why ISBLANK says FALSE for an “empty” cell

• The cell has a formula returning "".
• It holds a space.
• It holds an apostrophe from an import.

The test that catches those too

=IF(TRIM(C2)="","Empty","Has data")

C2="" is TRUE for truly blank cells and for formulas returning “”. Adding TRIM also catches spaces.

Check a range

=COUNTBLANK(A2:A100)
=SUMPRODUCT(--ISBLANK(A2:A100))

COUNTBLANK counts “” results as blank; ISBLANK doesn’t.

Skip blanks in a calculation

=IF(ISBLANK(B2),"",B2*C2)

Find and fill empty cells in bulk: find blank cells.