Formula Not Equal To in combination with Linked Field

[Andre_Zijlstra]

Hi all,

When I try to use the formula If({LINKED FIELD} !=BLANK(),Duration,BLANK())

Explanation: the duration of a certain activity is put in a seperate (new) column. It only will fill if the LINKED FIELD is empty.

For some reason it just doesn’t work. the != combination seems to be ignored. The duration is filled regardless of the content of the LINKED FIELD. What am I doing wrong?

Regards,
André

[Justin_Barrett]

Checking to see if a field is blank is actually much easier than you might think. This should work:

IF({LINKED FIELD}, Duration)

Putting the field name on its own checks to see if that field contains anything. If so, the condition is considered to be true. However, in your comment you said:

Andre_Zijlstra:

It only will fill if the LINKED FIELD is empty.

…which is the opposite of how you tried to structure your formula. If you truly want the duration to appear if {LINKED FIELD} is empty, use this:

IF(NOT({LINKED FIELD}), Duration)

Also, the last part of the IF() function is optional. If omitted (as I did in my examples), Airtable automatically inserts the appropriate equivalent of BLANK(), so putting BLANK() there explicitly is unnecessary.

[Andre_Zijlstra]

Hi Justin,

That’s good information man! I really appreciate this. Thank you.
André