ERROR.TYPE Function in Excel: Which Error Is It?

⏱ 1 min readUpdated 28 September 2026

InformationLevel: ExpertAvailable in: Excel 2007+

In this article
  1. Syntax
  2. Examples
  3. Example 1
  4. Related functions

ERROR.TYPE returns a number for each error (1 #NULL!, 2 #DIV/0!, 3 #VALUE!, 4 #REF!, 5 #NAME?, 6 #NUM!, 7 #N/A) so you can react differently to each.

Syntax

=ERROR.TYPE(error_val)
Argument What it means
error_val A formula that may error.

Examples

Example 1

=IFERROR(C2, CHOOSE(ERROR.TYPE(C2), "", "No sales", "Bad data", "Broken link", "Typo", "Too big", "Not found"))

Friendly messages per error type.

IFERROR · ISERR

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