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This formula works in the following manner:

• ISNUMBER(: This is the function itself, checking if a value is a number.
• A1: The cell reference containing the value to check.
• The function returns TRUE if the value is only a number, and FALSE otherwise.

For this data set this formula returns FALSE. (Because A1 contains "red".)

This formula works in the following manner:

• ISNUMBER(: This is the function itself.
• B1: The cell reference containing the value to check.
• The function returns TRUE if the value is only a number, and FALSE otherwise.

For this data set this formula returns TRUE (because B1 contains "56")

This formula works in the following manner:

• ISNUMBER(: This is the function itself.
• B1: The cell reference containing the value to check.
• The function returns TRUE if the value is only a number, and FALSE otherwise.

For this data set this formula returns FALSE. (Because A1 contains "red" in addition to "4".)

This formula works in the following manner:

• A1+B1: Attempts to add the values in A1 ("red") and B1 (56). This operation results in a #VALUE! error because you cannot mathematically add text and a number.
• ISNUMBER(...): Checks if the result of the addition is a number. Since the result is an error, not a number, the function returns FALSE.

For this data set this formula returns FALSE. (Because cell A1 contains "red".)

This formula works in the following manner:

• SEARCH("green", A2): Looks for the text "green" within the text in A2 ("green"). It returns the starting position number (1) if found, or an error if not found.
• ISNUMBER(...): Checks if the result of the SEARCH function is a number.
  • If SEARCH returns a number (meaning "green" was found), ISNUMBER returns TRUE.
  • If SEARCH returns an error (meaning "green" was not found), ISNUMBER returns FALSE.

For this data set this formula returns TRUE. (Because A2 contains "green".)
Note: It would still return TRUE if A2 contained "bright green". In that case SEARCH would have returned "8", but as that is still a number, the result is the same.

This formula works in the following manner:

• ISNUMBER(A1): Checks if the value in A1 is a number. This returns FALSE because A1 contains "red".
• IF(...): Evaluates the result of ISNUMBER(A1).
  • Since ISNUMBER(A1) is FALSE, the IF function executes the third argument (the value_if_false) and returns the text "Not a Number".
  • If ISNUMBER(A1) were TRUE, the IF function would execute the second argument (A1*2), multiplying the numeric value in A1 by 2.

For this data set this formula returns Not a Number. (Because A1 does not contain a number.)