BLANK

The blank value: what a cell with nothing in it holds, and what a measure returns when there is nothing to show.

Group: Logical. Compatible with DAX.

Syntax

BLANK ( )

It takes no parameters.

Returns

Blank. Nothing: the value of an empty cell.

Remarks

Functions return BLANK when there is nothing to compute, as SUM over no rows does.
Compared with =, a blank equals 0, empty text and FALSE. Compared with ==, it equals only another blank. ISBLANK tells a blank from a 0.
In + and - a blank works as 0, so BLANK () + 1 is 1. Multiplying or dividing a blank leaves a blank, and dividing by a blank gives infinity, as dividing by zero does.
Joined to text with &, a blank is empty text.
A measure that returns BLANK leaves its row out of a visual and of SUMMARIZECOLUMNS; a measure that returns 0 instead makes every row show.

Examples

Blank in arithmetic

EVALUATE
ROW (
    "Blank + 1", BLANK () + 1,
    "Blank - 3", BLANK () - 3,
    "Blank * 2", BLANK () * 2,
    "2 / blank", 2 / BLANK (),
    "Blank & x", BLANK () & "x"
)

Blank + 1	Blank - 3	Blank * 2	2 / blank	Blank & x
1	-3	(blank)	Infinity	x

= and ==

EVALUATE
ROW (
    "Blank = 0", BLANK () = 0,
    "Blank == 0", BLANK () == 0,
    "Blank == blank", BLANK () == BLANK ()
)

Blank = 0	Blank == 0	Blank == blank
TRUE	FALSE	TRUE

Blank hides a row

The measure is blank for every product but the one above 500,000 liters, so only that row is left.

EVALUATE
SUMMARIZECOLUMNS (
    Products[Product],
    "Big sellers", IF ( [Liters sold] > 500000, [Liters sold], BLANK () )
)
ORDER BY Products[Product]

Products[Product]	Big sellers
Pils	1004326

ISBLANK, COALESCE, IF, DIVIDE.

Last updated 3 November 2026 · OpenBI Studio 0.3.74