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For example, I have a date field, some of which are filled in, some of which are not. I want to make a second date field that is a time offset from the first. I want this formula field to stay in date format so it can be exported to a calendar, etc:



However, when the first field is blank, the second field shows an error instead:



How can I change my formula to output “absence of date” when the first field is blank? Using IF(BLANK( to return "" or 0 breaks the date formatting:


Hi @Jonathan

You are on the right track!


The format for an IF formula is IF(something that can be true, do this if true, do this if false)


IF({date}, something, '')

So IF(there is a date in the field named date, do something, otherwise output blank)


Hi @Jonathan

You are on the right track!


The format for an IF formula is IF(something that can be true, do this if true, do this if false)


IF({date}, something, '')

So IF(there is a date in the field named date, do something, otherwise output blank)


That doesn’t work, as I said. "" is a string, not a date, so the field cannot be formatted as a date anymore:



That doesn’t work, as I said. "" is a string, not a date, so the field cannot be formatted as a date anymore:



Just leaving the “else” argument blank seems to work:


IF({date}, something)


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