Not sure if this is a bug. It is if there isn’t another way to identify all blank cells in a range, including empty ones. Any suggestions?
Note: If x is an empty cell, Type (x) produces 502 error. T(x) produces a blank (but still not one identified by isblank). Type(T(x)) produces 8. If you put T(x) into cell y, then Type(y) produces 2. I don’t get the logic of this.
Calc in LibreOffice 4.3.1.2 on Mac Mavericks OS
There is recurrent discussion concerning the terms “blank” and “empty”, sometimes including additional ones.
To get it clear I need an example .ods demonstrating your observations. I will upvote your question sufficiently nourishing your karma.
I never got an error with =ISBLANK(CellReference) as you describe it. Please add information about your OS and versions of OS and Calc.
Concerning =TYPE(AnyValue) you should study not only the help text but also the ODF-specification . If you then decide to regard TYPE() as a deprecated function and to no longer use it, that might be a good idea. This related with the issues coming about because of the treatment of “logical” or “Boolean” by standard spreadsheets. “It’s a mess, not a bug” (Lupp).
“T(x) produces a blank …”. Again the terms. You are using “blank” now explicitly for the zero-character-text. TYPE() will correctly return the code 2 for it.
" I don’t get the logic of this." You shouldn’t expect too much of logic in the details of Office software. The software is just the current state of a history. A truly consistent specification and implementation has never occurred. marketing and “compatibiity” were the ruling concepts, not clarity or logic. ODF tries to specify a persistent representation of documents and some functional aspects reliably. It’s stuffed with history and compatibility issues nevertheless.