Display or hide zero values

Microsoft Office Excel 2003

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  1. On the Tools menu, click Options, and then click the View tab.
  2. Do one of the following:

    • To display zero (0) values in cells, select the Zero values check box.

    • To display zero values as blank cells, clear the check box.

ShowUse a number format to hide zero values in selected cells

Caution  This topic applies a format to hide zero values in selected cells. If the value in one of these cells changes to a nonzero value, the format of the value will be similar to the General number format.

  1. Select the cells that contain the zeros (0's) you want to hide.
  2. On the Format menu, click Cells, and then click the Number tab.
  3. In the Category list, click Custom.
  4. In the Type box, type 0;-0;;@

Notes

  • The hidden values appear only in the formula bar Formula bar— or in the cell if you edit within the cell— and are not printed.
  • To display hidden values again, select the cells, click the Cells command on the Format menu, and then click the Number tab. In the Category list, click General to apply the default number format. To redisplay a date or a time, select the appropriate date or time format on the Number tab.

ShowUse a conditional format to hide zero values returned by a formula

  1. Select the cell that contains the zero value.

  2. On the Format menu, click Conditional Formatting.

  3. In the box on the left, click Cell Value Is.

  4. In the second box from the left, click equal to.

  5. In the box on the right, type 0.

  6. Click Format, and then click the Font tab.

  7. In the Color box, select white.

ShowUse a formula to display zeros as a blanks, or dashes

Use the IF function to do this task.

Worksheet example

The example may be easier to understand if you copy it to a blank worksheet.

ShowHow?

  1. Create a blank workbook or worksheet.
  2. Select the example in the Help topic. Do not select the row or column headers.

    Selecting an example from Help

    Selecting an example from Help

  3. Press CTRL+C.
  4. In the worksheet, select cell A1, and press CTRL+V.
  5. To switch between viewing the results and viewing the formulas that return the results, press CTRL+` (grave accent), or on the Tools menu, point to Formula Auditing, and then click Formula Auditing Mode.
 
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A
Data
10
10
Formula Description (Result)
=A2-A3 Second number subtracted from the first (0)
=IF(A2-A3=0,"",A2-A3) Returns a blank cell when the value is zero (blank cell)
=IF(A2-A3=0,"-",A2-A3) Returns a dash when the value is zero (-)

Function details

IF

ShowHide zero values in a PivotTable report

  1. Click the report.
  2. On the PivotTable toolbar, click PivotTable, and then click Table Options.
  3. Do one or more of the following:

    Change error display    Select the For error values, show check box under Format options. In the box, type the value you want to display instead of errors. To display errors as blank cells, delete any characters in the box.

    Change empty cell display    Select the For empty cells, show check box. In the box, type the value you want to display in empty cells. To display blank cells, delete any characters in the box. To display zeros, clear the check box.

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