Skip to main content

Error Handling

 Formula errors are common. If you have a data set with hundreds of records, a divide-by-zero and an #N/A errors are bound to pop up now and then.

In the past, preventing errors required Herculean efforts. Nod your head knowingly if you’ve ever knocked out =IF(ISNA(VLOOKUP(A2,Table,2,0),"Not Found",VLOOKUP(A2,Table,2,0)). Besides being really long to type, that solution requires twice as many VLOOKUPs. First, you do a VLOOKUP to see if the VLOOKUP is going to produce an error. Then you do the same VLOOKUP again to get the non-error result.

Excel 2010 introduced the greatly improved =IFERROR(Formula,Value If Error). I know that IFERROR sounds like the old ISERROR, ISERR, and ISNA functions, but it is completely different.

This is a brilliant function: =IFERROR(VLOOKUP(A2,Table,2,0),"Not Found"). If you have 1,000 VLOOKUPs and only 5 return #N/A, then the 995 that worked require only a single VLOOKUP. Only the 5 VLOOKUPs returned #N/A that need to move on to the second argument of IFERROR.

Oddly, Excel 2013 added the IFNA() function. It is just like IFERROR but only looks for #N/A errors. One might imagine a strange situation where the value in the lookup table is found, but the resulting answer is a division by 0. If you want to preserve the divide-by-zero error for some reason, you can use IFNA() to do this.

A formula of =IFNA(VLOOKUP(),"Not Found") makes sure that you never see a #N/A error.

Of course, the person who built the lookup table should have used IFERROR to prevent the division by zero in the first place. In the figure below, the "n.m." is a former manager’s code for “not meaningful.”

The #DIV/0 error is changed to "n.m." by using =IFERROR(F9/E9,"n.m.")
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rank Function

How to Use the RANK Function If you give the RANK function a number, and a list of numbers, it will tell you the rank of that number in the list, either in ascending or descending order. For example, in the screen shot below, there is a list of 10 student test scores, in cells B2:B11. To find the rank of the the first student's score in cell B2, enter this formula in cell C2: =RANK(B2,$B$2:$B$11) Then, copy the formula from cell C2 down to cell C11, and the scores will be ranked in descending order. RANK Function Arguments There are 3 arguments for the RANK function: number : in the above example, the number to rank is in cell  B2 ref : We want to compare the number to the list of numbers in cells  $B$2:$B$11 . Use an absolute reference ($B$2:$B11), instead of a relative reference (B2:B11)so the referenced range will stay the same when you copy the formula down to the cells below order : (optional) This argument tells Excel whether to rank the list in ascending or descending o...
Post a Comment
Read more

Send Bulk Email from Excel for Outlook

  Download the File from below Link https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tcb4lzNFgEfDKsvQqCW05sgoiGFEhqcK/view?usp=sharing Instructions are given in the image below. Save the File as Excel Macro - Enabled workbook (.xlsm) Use this file to send bulk emails at a time i personally have sent more than 2000 bulk emails at a time. Error may occur if email id typed contains space etc. Only one email id one cell.
Post a Comment
Read more

Formatting Tips

1. Use tables to format data quickly Excel Tables  are an incredibly powerful way to handle a bunch of related data. Just select any cell with in the data and press CTRL+T and then Enter. And bingo, your data looks slick in no time. This has to be the best and easiest formatting tip. 2. Change colors in a snap So you have made a spreadsheet model or dashboard. And you want to change colors to something fresh. Just go to Page Layout ribbon and choose a color scheme from Colors box on top left. Microsoft has defined some great color schemes. These are well contrasted and look great on your screen. You can also define your own color schemes (to match corporate style). What more, you can even define schemes for fonts or combine both and create a new theme. 3. Use cell styles Consistency is an important aspect of formatting. By using cell styles, you can ensure that all similar information in your workbook is formatted in the same way. For example, you can color all input cells in orang...
Post a Comment
Read more