Microsoft KB Archive/61892

= XL: PRODUCT Function Evaluates a Blank Cell as 1, Not Zero =

Article ID: 61892

Article Last Modified on 11/16/2006

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Excel 2000 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Excel 2002 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Excel 97 Standard Edition
 * Microsoft Excel 2001 for Mac
 * Microsoft Excel 98 for Macintosh

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This article was previously published under Q61892



SUMMARY
The Microsoft Excel PRODUCT function treats a blank cell as if it has the value of 1.



MORE INFORMATION
The following worksheet is an example:   A1: 10.5   B1: 2     C1: =PRODUCT(A1,B1) A2: 10.5  B2: 0     C2: =PRODUCT(A2,B2) A3:       B3:       C3: A4: 10.5  B4:       C4: =PRODUCT(A4,B4) The formulas in C1, C2, and C4 return 21, 0, and 10.5, respectively. The blank cell in B4 is computed as the value 1 so that the PRODUCT function will not return a value of 0 when used to sum a range of cells that includes blank cells. You can force the PRODUCT function to evaluate blank cells as zero by adding *1 to each argument within the function. For example, the formula

=PRODUCT(A4*1,B4*1)

will return a value of zero, rather than 10.5 as shown above.

Additional query words: xl97 xl98 XL2000 xl2001 xl2002

Keywords: kbhowto KB61892

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