If a cell contains a value WITHOUT picking up text in the formula used to get that value

[AdamC1]

Hi, I have been trying to find a way around this for days and can't find a clean simple way of doing this although I'm sure there must be an easy way I have missed.

Essentially, is there a way for a formula to look up a 'value' e.g. "X", in a cell without picking up the content of the formula which may also contain "X"...?

Example
In row A10 I want to flag if a range of cells above it (A1:A9) contain "X" or if they are all blank, i.e. "".

However, because the cells A1:A9 have formulae that determines whether they are X or blank, e.g.=IF(AND(CB$7>=$BL12,CB$7<=$BM12),"X",""),
each time I try a formula such as IFBLANK, or (IF(ISERROR(MATCH("X",A1:A9,1)),"no","yes") these seem to pick up the X in the formulae itself.

Ideally, a IFBLANK formula would be good, but since the cells have formula in them they all show as non-blank, even though the value of the cell may be " ". Or is there a way around this.

Any help with this would be massively appreciated.

Thanks.

[Ron Coderre]

Formulas can't access the formula constructs in a cell. They only see the results.
Would something like this help?:
=IF(COUNTIF(A1:A9,"*x*"),"Yes","No")

That formula returns "Yes" if any of the referenced cell values contain "x".

[Special-K]

You might be able to use CELL("type",...)
a return of "b" (presumably "b" for "blank"?) indicates the cell contains neither a formula nor a value

[AdamC1]

Formulas can't access the formula constructs in a cell. They only see the results.
Would something like this help?:
=IF(COUNTIF(A1:A9,"*x*"),"Yes","No")

That formula returns "Yes" if any of the referenced cell values contain "x".

Many thanks Ron, that is working perfectly. I tried something similar but couldn't make it work, but your formula seems to be working fine.

Thanks.

[Cutter]

Hello AdamC1, and welcome to the forum.

Based on your last post it seems that you are satisfied with the solution(s) you've received but you haven't marked your thread as SOLVED. I'll do that for you now but please keep in mind for your future threads that Rule #9 requires you to do that yourself. If your problem has not been solved you can use Thread Tools (located above your first post) and choose "Mark this thread as unsolved".
Thanks.