How to hide blank rows by filter in a table that contains only formulas?

I think the question hinges on how you're building the summary table, and how you're filtering the data.

As a simple example, I created a sheet with two tables.

Table 1 is a simple list of firstname/lastname, where some of the last names are blank (some are truly blank, some have a formula ="", and some have more complex formulas that return empty strings.

I then created a second table that filters out people with missing/blank last names:

To do this, the formula in Summary Table::A2 is:

=FILTER(Table 1::First:Last,NOT(Table 1::Last=""))

This copies the cells from the 'First' and 'Last' columns in Table 1 where the corresponding value in the 'Last' column is not empty.

The list updates dynamically and doesn't differentiate between empty cells (no value/formula) or cells that have a formula that returns an empty cell.

What criteria to use for the filter depends on your formula.

If you use the FILTER function in the topmost cell and let it spill down into the rest of the column, a filter of "show rows where cell is not blank" will hide all the empty rows at the bottom.

If you are using an older method to create your list, one that requires formulas in all the rows, it depends on what the formula result is when there is no name. If the "blank" rows are actually a null string "" then you can create a "quick filter" and check the checkbox next to the blank. Or you can change your formula to result in a space character instead of "" and create a filter to show rows where text is not a space character.

I'd set up a 'filter' column with explicit logic. Simple and it will get the job done.

SG