How to make Excel display dashes when the cell is empty or contains a 0 (zero)..

Question

Hi, Probably a dumb question, but how can I make my Excel sheets display a - (dash) when the cell is empty or contains a 0 (zero)? Thank you.

Answer 1

I don't know how to do it all in one, but you can indicate the 2 conditions using 2 different checks.

For blank cells, you can use conditional formatting to apply a background color, ie

For the zeros, you can use a "custom format", ie

;;"-";

Answer 2

Hi, Pasokat.
I am a fellow user. I will try yo help.
If you will use the number format "comma" style, it will display a "-" when the cell contains 0 (zero), however, it will still be blank when the cell is empty.
Hope this helps.
Thank you.

Answer 3

Doing some research about the "comma format", I found that the Accounting format also displays 0 as minus

Number Format Accounting- Accounting Number Format in Excel

https://www.wallstreetmojo.com/accounting-number-format-in-excel/

The Accounting format puts the dollar sign, at the extreme left end of the cell, showcases zero as a dash, and showing negative sums in enclosures.