ISBLANK

Tests if the cell is blank (empty).

Syntax:

ISBLANK(cell)

Returns TRUE if cell is a blank (empty) cell, and FALSE otherwise. Cells containing a formula or a error return FALSE.

Example:

ISBLANK(D2)

returns TRUE if D2 is an empty cell, and FALSE if D2 contains a number, text, TRUE, FALSE, a formula or an error.

Application:

A small business, "Green Thumb Gardening," uses a spreadsheet to track customer orders. They want to ensure that every order has a shipping date assigned before it's processed. The ISBLANK function can be used to identify orders that are missing a shipping date, creating a "Ready to Ship" status column.

Table:

	Order ID	Customer Name	Order Date	Shipping Date	Ready to Ship?
	A	B	C	D	E
1	GT-1001	Sarah Jenkins	8/10/2025	8/12/2025	FALSE
2	GT-1002	Mark Davis	8/10/2025		TRUE
3	GT-1003	Emily White	8/11/2025	8/13/2025	FALSE
4	GT-1004	David Lee	8/11/2025		TRUE
5	GT-1005	Jessica Chen	8/12/2025	8/14/2025	FALSE

Explanation:

In this example, the formula in the "Ready to Ship?" column (let's say it's column E) would be:

ISBLANK(D1) for the first row.

For Order GT-1001, the Shipping Date cell (D1) has a date, so ISBLANK(D1) returns FALSE. The order is not ready to be shipped yet because a date is present, indicating it has already been shipped or is scheduled to be shipped.
For Order GT-1002, the Shipping Date cell (D2) is empty. ISBLANK(D2) returns TRUE. This indicates the order is missing a shipping date and is ready to be processed for shipping.
The same logic applies to the other rows. The TRUE values in the "Ready to Ship?" column highlight the orders that need attention from the shipping department.

This is a simple yet powerful application of ISBLANK to automate a check and improve workflow efficiency.