Show empty string instead of zero as a result of reference to an empty text field

[Passiday]

I’ve come across a weird behavior:

• Leave cell A1 empty;
• Type =A1 formula in cell B1;
• The cell now shows “0” instead of empty string;
• Changing the cell A1 format to “text” does not fix this.

Now, I can “improve” the formula to =IF(A1="","",A1), and that works. But why does the default behavior is showing that zero?

[JohnSUN]

Welcome!
Perhaps the T() function will help you? It’s a little shorter than IF():
=T(A1)

[Passiday]

Thank you, wasn’t aware of such function. But I wonder why that default behavior is there in the first place.

[JohnSUN]

Oh, it’s written about it here - Handling of Empty Cells

[erAck]

@Passiday

I wonder why that default behavior is there in the first place

Because other major spreadsheet implementations do it as well and users freak out if they don’t see what they are used to.