IF(ISBLANK(H1),,) or IF(H1="",,)?

Solution 1:

Good question.

Let me first answer the question that is on everyones mind.

Do =ISBLANK(a1) and =A1="" behave the same?

No, they do not, and this will determine which of the two you would want to use.

What is the difference between the two?

=ISBLANK(a1) will check if A1 is empty, eg. there's nothing in the cell. If this is true, then the formula will return TRUE. If there is a formula in A1 that returns "", =ISBLANK(a1) will return false whereas =A1="" will return true.

Here is an example where =ISBLANK(a1) will result in false to illustrate:

A1: =IF(1=2;"3";"")   <- will result in a blank cell
B1: =ISBLANK(A1)      <- even though we see nothing in A1, this will result in False 
                         because A1 has a formula still.

Which one of the two you want to use really depepends on what logic you need. If you have no nested formulas that can return blank, either is fine. =ISBLANK(a1) is probably going to look slightly cleaner, but other than that, it is up to you.