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How to return the first non-blank value in Excel and Google Sheets
Heads up: Excel and Google Sheets do this differently.
Excel
=INDEX(B2:F2,MATCH(TRUE,B2:F2<>"",0))Google Sheets
=COALESCE(B2,C2,D2,E2,F2)Try it with your data
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Step by step
- 1In Excel, enter =INDEX(B2:F2,MATCH(TRUE,B2:F2<>"",0)) as a Ctrl+Shift+Enter array formula (or just Enter in Excel 365 with dynamic arrays).
- 2In Google Sheets, use the simpler =COALESCE(B2,C2,D2,E2,F2) — it returns the first non-null, non-empty argument.
- 3Adjust the range to cover all columns (or rows) you want to search through.
Tips
- In Excel 365 you can also use =XLOOKUP("",B2:F2,B2:F2,"",0,-1) — set match_mode to 0 (exact) and search_mode to -1 (last-to-first) to get the last non-blank instead; reverse for first.
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Frequently asked
Does COALESCE work in Excel?
No — COALESCE is a Google Sheets function. Use INDEX/MATCH or IFERROR chains in Excel.
What if the first non-blank is a number?
Both approaches return the value as-is, whether text or numeric, so no adjustment is needed.