# How do I get XLOOKUP to return blanks if no match found?

**URL:** <https://community.rowzero.com/t/how-do-i-get-xlookup-to-return-blanks-if-no-match-found/66>\
**Category:** General Discussion\
**Created:** [December 10, 2025, 5:33pm UTC](https://community.rowzero.com/t/how-do-i-get-xlookup-to-return-blanks-if-no-match-found/66 "2025-12-10T17:33:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![UCResearch](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/a88e57/32.png) [@UCResearch](https://community.rowzero.com/u/UCResearch)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2025, 5:33pm UTC](https://community.rowzero.com/t/how-do-i-get-xlookup-to-return-blanks-if-no-match-found/66/1 "2025-12-10T17:33:03Z")

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I want my XLOOKUP formula to return blanks when there is not a match. By default, when XLOOKUP doesn’t find a match it returns #N/A! (XLOOKUP could not find a match). I see I can specify an “if not found” value, but I just want it to return blanks… not a value and not an error message.

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**Author:** ![Mark](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex003/user_avatar/community.rowzero.com/mark/32/54_2.png) [@Mark](https://community.rowzero.com/u/Mark)\
**Post date:** [December 10, 2025, 6:03pm UTC](https://community.rowzero.com/t/how-do-i-get-xlookup-to-return-blanks-if-no-match-found/66/2 "2025-12-10T18:03:48Z")

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XLOOKUP lets you set a custom value when a match is not found using the fourth argument in the function, if\_not\_found, which comes right after the return range.

To return a blank when no match is found with XLOOKUP, simply enter ““ (double quotes) which returns an empty string. In the example below, the formula is =XLOOKUP(B2, ‘State Lookup’!A:A, ‘State Lookup’!B:B, “”)

 ![image](https://canada1.discourse-cdn.com/flex003/uploads/row_zero/original/1X/ca5ae5e995eda42fef43ab379c06e5e1177642c5.png)

Here’s more tips for [how to use XLOOKUP](https://rowzero.com/blog/how-to-use-xlookup) along with examples.