Excel: How to Return Blank Cell Instead of Zero in Formulas


You can use the following basic syntax to return a blank cell instead of a zero when using Excel formulas:

=IF(B2/C2=0, "", B2/C2)

This particular formula attempts to divide the value in cell B2 by the value in cell C2.

If the result is zero, then Excel returns a blank. Otherwise, Excel returns the result of B2 divided by C2.

The following example shows how to use this formula in practice.

Example: Return Blank Cell Instead of Zero in Excel Formula

Suppose we have the following dataset that shows the total sales and returns for various products:

Suppose we type the following formula into cell D2 to calculate the return rate for product A:

=B2/C2

If we copy and paste this formula down to every cell in column D, we’ll see that some of the results are equal to zero:

To return a blank value instead of a zero, we can type the following formula into cell D2:

=IF(B2/C2=0, "", B2/C2)

We can then copy and paste this formula down to every remaining cell in column D:

Notice that every cell where the formula would return a zero now returns a blank value instead.

Additional Resources

The following tutorials explain how to perform other common tasks in Excel:

How to Ignore #N/A Values When Using Formulas in Excel
How to Replace #N/A Values in Excel
How to Fix the #NAME Error in Excel

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