Excel’s ISNA function is a useful tool for checking if a cell contains the #N/A error value. This error typically appears when a lookup function can’t find the desired value in a range. ISNA returns “TRUE” if the specified cell contains #N/A, and “FALSE” if it doesn’t. Let’s break down the function in simple terms for easy understanding.
Syntax
ISNA(value)
Arguments
| value | The value you want to check for the #N/A error. This argument is required. |
How to Use
The ISNA function is straightforward to use. You provide the cell or formula result you want to check for the #N/A error as the ‘value’ argument. Here are a couple of examples:
Example 1: Checking if cell A1 contains #N/A.
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=ISNA(A1) |
This formula will return “TRUE” if cell A1 contains #N/A, and “FALSE” if it doesn’t.
Example 2: Using ISNA with a VLOOKUP function.
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=ISNA(VLOOKUP("SearchValue", A1:B10, 2, FALSE)) |
Here, ISNA is used to check if the VLOOKUP function returns #N/A when searching for “SearchValue” in the range A1:B10. It will return “TRUE” if a #N/A error occurs and “FALSE” if it doesn’t.
Additional Information
The ISNA function is handy for error handling in Excel. It allows you to quickly identify and address #N/A errors in your spreadsheets. If you encounter other error values, such as #VALUE! or #REF!, Excel offers similar functions like ISERR and ISERROR to handle those cases.
