wildcards to work with numbers & date format

[chaiyya345]

Hi All,

I need wildcard to work with any numbers or date format. I am using this formula: =IF(COUNTIF(C1,"*?"),"OK", ""). But it only works with text if something is being entered to C1.
How to make wildcards to work with numbers & date format too?

Please find attachment.

Thank-You very much

[bebo021999]

Is mean C1 is not blank?
=IF(C1<>"","OK","")
=IF(LEN(C1)>0,"OK","")
=IF(ISBLANK(C1),"OK","")

With the last one catch the space " ", the others not.

[Gregb11]

Are you saying if anything is entered in C1 to display "OK"? If so, try this:
=IF(C1="","", "OK")

[6StringJazzer]

Your question seems to be about detecting a blank cell, rather than about how to use wildcards.

If you are only using one cell in the formula, use

=IF(C1="","","OK")

[MrShorty]

I think we might need more examples of what you are trying to do.

One thing I would note is that Excel does not count by format -- so dates and numbers are the same thing as far as Excel sees, so we might need to understand what, for your purposes, are the differences between "date" numbers and "number" numbers.

The specific wildcard in your example looks like it would be easily replaced with the COUNTA() function. The COUNTA() function essentially counts any non-blank cell, so it counts cells with any kind of number or text.

A few different examples of how you want to use wildcards with the different "data types" that you have in mind would help us help you.

[chaiyya345]

Hi Grebb11, bebo021999...

thanks for you help. Oh dear! how silly I was & so much focused on the wildcards. when simple IF solved.

Grebb11 solutions solved.

reputation added to you both & will closed this thread.

Thank-You very much

[Gregb11]

Thanks for the rep and glad we could help.

[6StringJazzer]

The COUNTA() function essentially counts any non-blank cell, so it counts cells with any kind of number or text.

COUNTA counts cells that are not empty, which is different than non-blank. If a cell has a formula, it is not empty. The formula

=IF(TRUE,"","X")

gives a blank result, but the cell is not empty. Therefore COUNTA will count the cell as non-empty.

The wildcard shown in the OP will match cells with a non-null string, but it will not match cells with numbers.

The formula I gave will match any cell that is either empty or has a formula with a null string result.