ISERROR Function in Excel: Does the Formula Return Any Error?

ISERROR Function in Excel: Does the Formula Return Any Error? featured illustration

📎 This article includes 1 downloadable practice file ↓

⏱ 2 min readUpdated 5 October 2026

InformationLevel: IntermediateAvailable in: Excel 2007+

In this article
  1. Syntax
  2. Examples
  3. Example 1
  4. ISERROR in practice
  5. Where you will use it
  6. Worked example
  7. Mistakes people make
  8. Related functions
  9. Continue learning

ISERROR returns TRUE for any error value. It is mostly used in conditional formatting and checks; for replacing errors, IFERROR is simpler.

Advertisement

Syntax

=ISERROR(value)
Argument What it means
value A formula or cell.

Examples

Example 1

=SUMPRODUCT(--ISERROR(F2:F500))

Count error cells in a column — a good pre-send check.

ISERROR in practice

Where you will use it

  • Check any error before using a value
  • Count errors in a column
  • Conditional formatting for errors

Worked example

ValueFormulaResult
#DIV/0!=ISERROR(A2)TRUE
#N/A=ISERROR(A3)TRUE
5=ISERROR(A4)FALSE

Results calculated in Excel.

Mistakes people make

MistakeWhat to do instead
IF(ISERROR(x),...,x) calculates twiceUse IFERROR(x,...) instead
Hiding #N/A that mattersUse ISNA or IFNA for lookups

IFERROR · ISNA · AGGREGATE

📚 Part of the free Excel course: Beginner → Expert · Try it in the Formula Lab or ask the AI Helper.

⚡ Interactive Practice Lab & Formula Tester:

Test formulas dynamically in our web formula laboratory or download the companion Excel workbook.

Continue learning

All Information guides →
ISOMITTED Function in Excel: Was an Optional Argument Left Out?LogicalLevel: ExpertAvailable in: Excel 365 / 2021+ISOMITTED is used inside LAMBDA to give optional…N Function in Excel: Turn a Value Into a NumberN returns numbers unchanged, TRUE as 1 and text as 0. Its oddest use…ISNONTEXT Function in Excel: Anything But TextISNONTEXT is TRUE for numbers, blanks, errors and logicals. Handy in data validation to…TYPE Function in Excel: What Kind of Value Is This?InformationLevel: IntermediateAvailable in: Excel 2007+TYPE returns 1 number, 2 text, 4 logical, 16 error…

📎 Practice files for this article

  • 📗
    Practice workbook: Information (IS…) functions15 tasks on realistic sales data — type your formula, the Check column turns green when it is right. Answers sheet included.
    ⬇ XLSX · 34 KB

Free to use for learning. Files with macros (.bas) are plain text — import them with Alt+F11 → File → Import File, and always test on a copy.

✨ Ask AI about this article

Stuck on a step? Ask a question and the AI answers using this article.

Free · AI can be wrong