Making Your Formulas Check for Errors

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated December 10, 2022)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365


It is often helpful to check if a cell contains an error condition so that your formula can know how to calculate results that may be dependent on that cell. Excel provides the IFERROR function to help determine this information. The purpose of this function is to help simplify how you check for potential errors in your formulas. Consider a rather simple example:

=B8/B9

In most instances this formula will return a good result—unless cell B9 contains a zero value. In that case, Excel returns a #DIV/0! error. The traditional approach to trap this potentiality is to use the ISERROR function in this manner:

=IF(ISERROR(B8/B9),0,B8/B9)

The ISERROR function returns either True or False, depending on whether the expression being evaluated returns an error or not. The surrounding IF function can then act upon the value returned by ISERROR to determine what should be displayed.

The problem with this approach is that it is rather convoluted. Note, for instance, that your evaluation (B8/B9) needs to be included twice in the full formula. While that may not seem problematic with such a simple evaluation, with longer formulas it can be a real pain—at a minimum it makes your overall formula twice as long as it should be and provides two formulas that need to be kept in sync when you make changes.

This is where the IFERROR function comes into play. It helps simplify the formulas you create. The following is the equivalent of the traditional formula presented earlier:

=IFERROR(B8/B9,0)

In this instance, the formula B8/B9 is evaluated and, if it results in an error, the 0 value is returned. If there is no error, then the value of the formula being evaluated is instead returned.

You can find additional information about the IFERROR function at this web page:

https://exceljet.net/excel-functions/excel-iferror-function

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (7800) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2021, and Excel in Microsoft 365.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Converting Radians to Degrees

When applying trigonometry to the values in a worksheet, you may need to convert radians to degrees. This is done by ...

Discover More

Specifying a Location To Save Automatic Backup Files

Word allows you make two types of automatic backups of your documents. One is a copy of the file before you start making ...

Discover More

Running Macros on Hidden Worksheets

Excel allows you to hide worksheets so that they aren't visible to those using your workbook. Hiding worksheets has a ...

Discover More

Dive Deep into Macros! Make Excel do things you thought were impossible, discover techniques you won't find anywhere else, and create powerful automated reports. Bill Jelen and Tracy Syrstad help you instantly visualize information to make it actionable. You’ll find step-by-step instructions, real-world case studies, and 50 workbooks packed with examples and solutions. Check out Microsoft Excel 2019 VBA and Macros today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

Summing Only Positive Values

If you have a series of values and you want to get a total of just the values that meet a specific criteria, then you ...

Discover More

Returning the Smallest Non-Zero Value

In a series of values, you may need to know the smallest value that isn't a zero. There is no built-in function to do ...

Discover More

Generating a Gift Exchange List

Want to figure out how to do a gift exchange for your family or office? There are a variety of ways you can approach the ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is seven more than 1?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.