Return an empty or blank cell value?

When I use the IF function in most cases, I want it to either show some text
or nothing at all. I have always performed this function as in the following
example:

=IF(A1=5,"Five"," ")

If A1 is not equal to five, then my cell will show a space which makes it
appear to look empty or blank... a cheap fix I suppose. Is there a way to
make a cell truly act as if it were completely empty in this case?... without
cheating with a " " space or without returning a zero (0)? Thanks much for
any info.

=IF(A1=5,"Five","") works better, it puts what is called a null character in
the cell.
it's still not really blank, but other formulas like it better than a space
sometimes.

Vaya con Dios,
Chuck, CABGx3



"Troymello" wrote:

> When I use the IF function in most cases, I want it to either show some text
> or nothing at all. I have always performed this function as in the following
> example:
>
> =IF(A1=5,"Five"," ")
>
> If A1 is not equal to five, then my cell will show a space which makes it
> appear to look empty or blank... a cheap fix I suppose. Is there a way to
> make a cell truly act as if it were completely empty in this case?... without
> cheating with a " " space or without returning a zero (0)? Thanks much for
> any info.