This doesn't answer your actual question, but isn't it better practice to use ISBLANK instead of ""?
As for your actual question, a check of the parts of your command at the R prompt would probably reveal something interesting: > paste("IF(A2=", dQuote(""), ",", dQuote(""), ",1)", sep="") [1] "IF(A2=“”,“”,1)" > options(useFancyQuotes=FALSE) > paste("IF(A2=", dQuote(""), ",", dQuote(""), ",1)", sep="") [1] "IF(A2=\"\",\"\",1)" This bit of your output should have been a hint: IF(A2=Ҡ,Ҡ,1) Sarah On Fri, May 13, 2016 at 9:24 AM, Liao, Hongsheng <hl...@odu.edu> wrote: > I am trying to add an equation with “” from R to an Excel workbook. However, > I have found that the Function “setCellFormula” doesn’t take the “” well > while a “” in Excel equation stands for a blank cell. I have tried NA(), > EMPTY(), etc, and none of them are what I want. Does anyone have other ways > to put an equation with “” from R to Excel workbook? Thanks in advance. > > Following is simple codes just for the demonstration, and the error is > highlighted in red. > > #load package "XLConnect" to add functions from R to Excel > library(XLConnect) > > # Load workbook (create if not existing) > wb <- loadWorkbook("try adding an equation.xlsx", create = TRUE) > > # Create a sheet named 'data' > createSheet(wb, name = 'data') > > #the formula contains no double quotes which works well > formula.without.double.quote <- "IF(A2>95, 1, 0)" > setCellFormula(wb, 'data', 2, 10, formula=formula.without.double.quote) > > #the formula contains double quotes which doesn’t work with the function > “setCellFormula” > formula.with.double.quote <- paste("IF(A2=", dQuote(""), ",", dQuote(""), > ",1)", sep="") > setCellFormula(wb, 'data', 3, 10, formula=formula.with.double.quote) > Error: FormulaParseException (Java): Parse error near char 6 '“' in > specified formula 'IF(A2=Ҡ,Ҡ,1)'. Expected cell ref or constant > literal > > #save the workbook > saveWorkbook(wb, file="C:\\Users\\try adding an equation.xlsx") > > Hank > > Hongsheng (Hank) Liao, PhD. > Lab Manager > Center for Quantitative Fisheries Ecology > Old Dominion University > 757-683-4571 > > > > ______________________________________________ R-help@r-project.org mailing list -- To UNSUBSCRIBE and more, see https://stat.ethz.ch/mailman/listinfo/r-help PLEASE do read the posting guide http://www.R-project.org/posting-guide.html and provide commented, minimal, self-contained, reproducible code.