Description

Use this function to return TRUE when a cell contains the #N/A error, and FALSE for any other value or any other error type. Supported in Chains.

Syntax

ISNA(value)

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.

Use case Formula Explanation and Result

Check to see if a specific cell has an #N/A error.

=ISNA(A1)

This formula works in the following manner:

ISNA(: This is the function itself, specifically checking for the #N/A error.
A1: The cell reference to check.
The function returns TRUE only if the cell contains the #N/A error; otherwise, it returns FALSE.

For this data set this formula returns TRUE. (Because cell A1 contains a #N/A error)

Check to see if a specific cell has an #N/A error.

=ISNA(B1)

This formula works in the following manner:

For this data set this formula returns FALSE. (Because cell B1 contains "56".)

Display a message if a specific cell has an #N/A error.

=IF(ISNA(A1),"Oops — check this!",A1)

This formula works in the following manner:

ISNA(A1): Checks if cell A1 contains the #N/A error. This evaluates to TRUE.
IF(ISNA(A1), "Oops — check this!", A1): The IF function evaluates the ISNA result.
- Since ISNA(A1) is TRUE, the IF function returns the second argument (the value_if_true): "Oops — check this!".
- If ISNA(A1) were FALSE, it would return the third argument (the value_if_false), which is the value of cell A1 itself.

For this data set this formula returns Oops — check this! (because cell A1 contains a #N/A error)

You can combine ISNA with the IF function to test for #N/A and display a friendly message if the error occurs.
For example, to display a message if A1 contains #N/A and the value of A1 if not: =IF(ISNA(A1),"friendly message",A1