Question: Why this function, CHAR(), is not working ?

Question

2017.04.18 — Question:  Why this function, CHAR(), is not working ?

Apparently I’m missing something important causing the CHAR() function to work.

The cells of Columns K through Y are formatted “General” to hold exam and homework scores, while column Z is to hold the cumulative grade [Score] and AA is the final grade [Grade].

Before any grades are entered, Z currently posts a zero (“0”) and AA posts an “F”.

I’m trying to make Z and F stay blank or post blank spaces until a score is actually input, anywhere in K thought Y.

Thus far, I’ve tried CHAR (32), CHAR(0), CHAR(), TEXT(CHAR(32)), TEXT(CHAR(0)), and TEXT(CHAR()).

I was thinking one of those would work, but neither did.

I’m apparently not using CHAR or TEXT correctly.

Below are the functions in cells Z and AA.

ISBLANK), SUM, VLOOKUP are working correctly.

“Score” (Cell Z2)  =  IF(ISBLANK(K2:Y2), CHAR(32), SUM(Grading!$J$3:$J$8))

“Grade” Cell AA2  =  IF(ISBLANK(K2:Y2), CHAR(32),VLOOKUP(Z2, Grading!$L$3:$M$15, 2, TRUE))

Worksheet “Roster”                                                       Score      Grade

K          L        M        N         O         P        Q         R        S          T         U        V        W        X         Y         Z       AA

Row	2	K	L	M	N	O	P	Q	R	S	T	U	V	W	X	Y	Z = 0	AA =F

PS:  My last reply came from Teylyn; excellent response !

Answer 1

Answer:  Why this function, CHAR(), is not working ?

My objective was to include a function that would allow a formula to place either:

1. a number from zero to 100 into a cell, or
2. leave the cell blank.

By combining ideas I got from four replies to my question, I managed to get something useful.

The final result that works is below:

= IFERROR(IF(Y2<0,"",VLOOKUP(Y2,$M$41:$N$53,2,TRUE)),"")

It's worth mentioning that a space is not an empty cell. I see a lot of people 'deleting' the value in a cell by entering a space. The result is not an empty cell so formulae referring to it won't work as expected.