Excel 2007 : IF Statement not work on empty cells

[runjacquerun]

Can someone please explain why my "if" statement isn't being applied to empty cells?

If the numbers in columns "N," "O", and "P" meet the criteria stated in my "if" statement, then in column "Q" there will be a 0. Otherwise, there will be a 1.

Note: There are formulas in columns "N," "O," and "P." If the calculation does not apply to cells in those columns (because no data was provided), then there was will be a "".

Here is what I have in column "Q":

IF(OR(MAX(N1:O1)>0.01,MIN(N1:O1)<-0.01,P1>0.80,P1<-0.80),0,1)

I have also set conditional formatting to the "Q" column so that if there is a 0, the cell will be red. Otherwise, the cell color will not change.

When there is a blank cell in columns "N," "O," or "P" column "Q" automatically has a 0 (even though an empty cell doesn't meet the criteria stated in the "if" statement). Can you please explain why that happens?

Thanks!

[Cutter]

The P1>0.80 will return TRUE if P1's formula returns "" because Excel treats any text value (including "") as being greater than any numeric value. So any time P1 is "" you will get a 0 result.

[runjacquerun]

Cutter, thank you so much for your help.