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ISERROR

ISERROR

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Description 

 Use this function to determine if a cell has any type of error flag.  Supported in Chains.  

This includes the #N/A, #VALUE!, #REF!, #DIV/0!, #NUM!, #NAME?, and #NULL! errors.

Syntax

ISERROR(value)

Inputs

This function has the following arguments:

Name Required Description Valid Input
value Yes The cell that you want to evaluate.  A reference to a cell, or a formula which results in one.

 

Examples

Sample data

  A B  
1

Item

Value

  
2

red

56

  
3

green

39

  
4

orange

15

  
5

red

92

  
6

blue

22

  

Sample formulas

Use case Formula Explanation and Result
Check to see if the specified cell contains an error. =ISERROR(A1)

This formula works in the following manner:

  • ISERROR(: This is the function itself, checking for any error value except #N/A.
  • A1: The cell reference to check.
  • The function returns TRUE if the cell contains any error value (#VALUE!, #REF!, #DIV/0!, #NUM!, #NAME?, or #NULL!), and FALSE otherwise (including if the cell is blank or contains #N/A).

Result: FALSE. (Because cell A1 is empty.)
Check to see if the specified cell contains an error. =ISERROR(B1)

This formula works in the following manner:

  • ISERROR(: This is the function itself.
  • B1: The cell reference to check.

Result: TRUE (because cell B1 contains a #N/A! error)
Check to see if the specified cell contains an error. =ISERROR(A2)

This formula works in the following manner:

  • ISERROR(: This is the function itself.
  • A2: The cell reference to check.

Result: FALSE. (Because cell A1 contains "green".)
Check to see if any of a set of cells contains an error. =IF(OR(ISERROR(A1),ISERROR(B1),ISERROR(C1)),"An error happened")

This formula works in the following manner:

  • ISERROR(A1), ISERROR(B1), ISERROR(C1): These check if each respective cell contains any error value (excluding #N/A).
  • OR(...): Returns TRUE if *any* of the ISERROR checks return TRUE.
  • IF(OR(...), "An error happened"): If the OR condition is TRUE (at least one cell has an error other than #N/A), it returns the text "An error happened". Otherwise, it returns the default value FALSE.

Result: An error happened. (Because cell B1 contains a #N/A! error.)

Notes

  • Cell ranges aren't supported.
  • You can join multiple instances of ISERROR to check if any of a set of cells is blank: 
    =IF(OR(ISERROR(A1),ISERROR(B1),ISERROR(C1)),"An error happened", SUM(A1:C1))
    Because will return TRUE if any supplied value is TRUE, the formula will display "An error happened" if any of the cells identified with an function return TRUE. 

Tips

You can use ISERROR as follows:

  • To trap an error and perform a calculation, is a cleaner approach.
  • You can combine ISERROR with the function to reverse the logic to "is not an error". Example: =NOT(ISERROR(A1))

Related functions

Description  Use this function to determine if a cell has any type of error flag.  Supported in Chains.  This include...