Statistica spreadsheets used to have a default missing data value of -9999. So any empty cell contained -9999 "under the hood".

But -9999 was not considered unusual enough. Some spreadsheets might contain legitimate values of -9999, and those would appear as blank, instead of displaying -9999.So the default missing data value was changed to -999999998 starting from Version 8.

This change can lead to confusion when moving empty cells from an older spreadsheet with a missing data value of -9999 to a newer spreadsheet with a missing data value of -999999998.
You will notice the empty cells in the older spreadsheet contained -9999. When those -9999 value are placed into the newer spreadsheet, -9999 is not considered a missing data indicator in the destination spreadsheet. So -9999 is displayed.

The missing data value can be adjusted in 2 ways:

1) Change the global option used for all spreadsheets by selecting the Home tab, and then Options.

2) Change the value used for individual spreadsheet variables by double--clicking on the variable header.

In SVB, you can copy the missing data value from variables in the source spreadsheet to variables in the destination spreadsheet. For example:

Sub Main

Dim ss As Spreadsheet

Set ss = ActiveDataSet

'Get data from source spreadsheet

Dim vData As Variant

Set vData = ss.GetData(1,10,1,4)

'Create new spreadsheet to receive data

Dim ssTwo As Spreadsheet

Set ssTwo =  Spreadsheets.New

ssTwo.SetSize(10,4)

'Set missing data value in new spreadsheet to be the same

'as the missing data value in the source spreadsheet

Dim i As Long

For i = 1 To 4

ssTwo.VariableMissingData(i) = ss.VariableMissingData(i)

Next i

'Put data from source spreadsheet into new spreadsheet

ssTwo.SetData(1,1,vData)

ssTwo.Visible = True

End Sub