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.

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.

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

Published by Zach