Google-sheets – Identifying a merged cell in Google Sheets without using a custom function

conditional formattingformattingformulasgoogle sheets

I am using Google Sheets and I am trying to find a way to identify merged cells without using a custom function.

For example, I need to determine (using only the built-in functions) whether any given cell has been merged with another.

The function, or chain or functions, that I would like to find would perform as follows:

Any thoughts?

(Edited for clarity)

if you have such an option you can use Conditional Formatting to check for merged cells where you can immediately spot merged cells where the color pattern is interrupted like:
```
=MOD(COLUMN(),2)=0
```

So I've searched long and hard for a good answer to this and here is what I have found:

an unmodified range parameter passes in the values of cells in the range, not the range itself (as Gergely explained) ex: when you do this =myFunction(a1:a2)
to use a range in your function you need to first pass the range in as a string (ex: =myFunction("a1:a2") ), then turn it into a range with the following code inside the function:
```
Function myFunction(pRange){
  var sheet = SpreadsheetApp.getActiveSpreadsheet();
  var range = sheet.getRange(pRange);
}
```
Finally, if you want the benefits of passing in a range (like intelligently copying range references to other cells) AND you want to pass it in as a string, you have to use a default function that accepts a range as a parameter and outputs a string you can use. I detail both ways I have found below, but I prefer the 2nd.

For all Google spreadsheets:
=myFunction(ADDRESS(row(A1),COLUMN(A1),4)&":"&ADDRESS(row(A2),COLUMN(A2),4))

For the new Google Sheets:

=myFunction(CELL("address",A1)&":"&CELL("address",A2))

You can check whether a cell is empty or not by using the following formula:

=if(C2="";"The cell is empty";"The cell is not empty")