No, it'll only hide 0s in the cells to which the custom format is applied.

An alternative is to modify the formula. For example:


=IF(A1+B1=0,"",A1+B1)
or:
IF(OR(A1=0,B1=0),"",A1+B1)
The first hides the result only if it evaluates to 0, whereas the second hides the result if either of the inputs is 0.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Please note the OP's question; the part where it refers to "cell formatting".

Also,

Your formula would work better as:

to avoid the embarrassment of 0+4=""

Your point being?

Your advice:
is plain wrong. It will only hide 0s in the cells to which the custom format is applied - not all cells in the worksheet.

As for:
I was quite deliberate in using the OR statement, for the reasons I gave. With your variant, if -A1=B1, you'll still get a 0 display.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

The way I interpret the question (and I could be wrong!) is if all of the precedent cells are empty then to 'not display a result', whilst if any of the cells contain a number then a result should be displayed (including 0 if that is a result).

To do that I'd use a formula (or variation thereof) like this:
Although, to be honest, the empty string causes problems if further arithmetic is performed from it. In my worksheets, I'd keep it simple and just display the 0 all of the time.

My 2c...

macropod,

Apparently lost with you.

The OP did not ask to hide all 0s in the worksheet, only the "cell with a formula" by way of the "cell formating box". It was Kaneto that suggested the "entire worksheet" for conditional formatting. My suggestion was only intended for the formula cell; at least we agree on that. My warning was that relying on a custom format would also hide a zero result from the formula (if the result is meant to be zero) and not just from the input cells being blank.

As I said, sometimes the result is supposed to be "0", which is why I included the warning about the custom format. However with the OR statement in your example, if A1=0 and B1=4, your result would be "" instead of "4". Now that is "plain wrong".