TIP: A cell set to "" by a formula isn't treated as empty by functions like ABS

The numeric function ABS is supposed to treat an empty cell as if it were zero.
     REF: See Formulas and Functions User Guide; under the numeric function ABS is the following example:
          =ABS(A1) returns 0, if cell A1 is empty
However, I learned that if the cell A1 is empty as a result of a formula, then ABS returns the following error instead:
ERROR MESSAGE: The function “ABS” expects a number but found “.”
I don't think this is a bug exactly (though I did at first) because strictly speaking the A1 cell isn't empty (it contains a formula that in my case set the cell to "" if certain conditions were met). And it turns out that Microsoft Excel behaves the same way, according to a forum board called mrexcel.com. See discussion here: http://www.mrexcel.com/forum/showthread.php?t=79443
I don't know if functions besides ABS work the same way, but I wouldn't be surprised if they do. Hope this knowledge saves you some trouble!

Wonderful formula
If A1 was really blank and would be accepted by ABS() returning 0,
B1 will contain an empty string and ABS() will error.
You wrote :
The numeric function ABS is supposed to treat an empty cell as if it were zero.
It's not supposed to do that, it really do that.
if A1 is blank  , ABS(A1) returns 0
if A1 contains 0  , ABS(A1) returns 0
if A1 contains 1  , ABS(A1) returns 1
if A1 contains -1  , ABS(A1) returns 1
Alas, you were working upon a different case in which
A1 contained the nil string ("")  and in such case, logically, ABS(A1) returns error
As setting the contents of a cell to "" is a common way to display nothing in a cell whose value would be zero,
I gave tips to apply ABS() to such case.
You called our attention to this fact : you misunderstood what is clearly stated in the User Guide and assumed wrongly.
Why would other users understand wrongly as you did ?
Yvan KOENIG (VALLAURIS, France)  lundi 14 janvier 2011 18:27:24
iMac 21”5, i7, 2.8 GHz, 4 Gbytes, 1 Tbytes, mac OS X 10.6.8 and 10.7.2
My iDisk is : <http://public.me.com/koenigyvan>
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