Explanation
In the example worksheet, column D contains a date when a task is completed.
If the task is not yet complete, the cell in column D will be empty (blank).
The most common way to solve a problem like this is with theIF function.
The IF function can return a hard-coded value, a cell reference, or another formula.
In Excel, an empty string will not display anything.
The values returned by the IF function can be customized as needed.
There is no practical difference between the formulas, the choice depends on personal preference.
We are not asking Excel if A1 is blank, we are literally counting the characters in A1.
The LEN function will return a non-zero number only when a cell contains actual characters.
Using the LEN function this way works for cells containing formulas as well as cells without formulas.
Conditional formatting
Another way to highlight open tasks is to useconditional formatting.
When a date is entered in column D, the formatting will disappear.More examples here.
More than one condition can be tested by nesting IF functions.
For example, if A1 contains “apple”, ISBLANK(A1) returns FALSE.
Related videos
The IF function
How to quickly remove blank rows
