ISERROR and ISERROR2

[ken1234]

Hey

I have to make a presentation for school about the functions ISERROR and ISERROR2.
I did some research but my teacher told me that my results weren't correct.
Can someone explain what there functions do?
I also saw an example where they used if(iserror)) to give a default value when an error occurs, but can't you just use is.error for that?

Thanks
Ken

[vamosj]

ISERROR Will only return a true or false statement if the cell it references returns an error in its formula.

example:

Cell A1 = 0
Cell A2 = 4
Cell C1 = A1/A2 0/4 = 0
Cell C2 = A2/A1 4/0 = #DIV/0 (Error because you cannot divide any number by 0)

Cell E1 = ISERROR(C1) This cell would be False because the calculated value in C1 = 0
Cell E2 = IEERROR(C2) This cell would be True because the calculated value in C2 is an error


The IF statement allows you to adjust what you get in return if the logical value is True or False.

So the combination of IF(ISERROR(C1), "Houston we have a problem","Good to go") Would show "Good to go" in the cell instead of coming back as False.

If we moved the reference to C2 then we would get "Houston we have a problem"



yudlugar made a point that I forgot to include...

IFERROR() = IF(ISERROR())

[ragulduy]

Regarding if(iserror), if you just have iserror on it's own it will return true or false, so you can use if(iserror(),"default value") to return a specific phrase, I think you might mean IFERROR()? That does the same as If(iserror()) but isn't available in older versions (eg 2003) which might be why you saw them use the if-iserror method..


IS Functions
Show AllHide All
This section describes the nine worksheet functions used for testing the type of a value or reference.

Each of these functions, referred to collectively as the IS functions, checks the type of value and returns TRUE or FALSE depending on the outcome. For example, the ISBLANK function returns the logical value TRUE if value is a reference to an empty cell; otherwise it returns FALSE.

Syntax

ISBLANK(value)
ISERR(value)
ISERROR(value)
ISLOGICAL(value)
ISNA(value)
ISNONTEXT(value)
ISNUMBER(value)
ISREF(value)
ISTEXT(value)

Value is the value you want tested. Value can be a blank (empty cell), error, logical, text, number, or reference value, or a name referring to any of these, that you want to test.

Function Returns TRUE if
ISBLANK Value refers to an empty cell.
ISERR Value refers to any error value except #N/A.
ISERROR Value refers to any error value (#N/A, #VALUE!, #REF!, #DIV/0!, #NUM!, #NAME?, or #NULL!).
ISLOGICAL Value refers to a logical value.
ISNA Value refers to the #N/A (value not available) error value.
ISNONTEXT Value refers to any item that is not text. (Note that this function returns TRUE if value refers to a blank cell.)
ISNUMBER Value refers to a number.
ISREF Value refers to a reference.
ISTEXT Value refers to text.


Remarks

•The value arguments of the IS functions are not converted. For example, in most other functions where a number is required, the text value "19" is converted to the number 19. However, in the formula ISNUMBER("19"), "19" is not converted from a text value, and the ISNUMBER function returns FALSE.
•The IS functions are useful in formulas for testing the outcome of a calculation. When combined with the IF function, they provide a method for locating errors in formulas (see the following examples).
Example 1

The example may be easier to understand if you copy it to a blank worksheet.

How to copy an example
Create a blank workbook or worksheet.Select the example in the Help topic. Note Do not select the row or column headers.

Selecting an example from HelpPress CTRL+C.In the worksheet, select cell A1, and press CTRL+V.To switch between viewing the results and viewing the formulas that return the results, press CTRL+` (grave accent), or on the Tools menu, point to Formula Auditing, and then click Formula Auditing Mode.

1
2
3
4
A B
Formula Description (Result)
=ISLOGICAL(TRUE) Checks whether TRUE is a logical value (TRUE)
=ISLOGICAL("TRUE") Checks whether "TRUE" is a logical value (FALSE)
=ISNUMBER(4) Checks whether 4 is a number (TRUE)

Example 2

The example may be easier to understand if you copy it to a blank worksheet.

How to copy an example
Create a blank workbook or worksheet.Select the example in the Help topic. Note Do not select the row or column headers.

Selecting an example from HelpPress CTRL+C.In the worksheet, select cell A1, and press CTRL+V.To switch between viewing the results and viewing the formulas that return the results, press CTRL+` (grave accent), or on the Tools menu, point to Formula Auditing, and then click Formula Auditing Mode.

1
2
3
4
5
6
A
Data
Gold
Region1
#REF!
330.92
#N/A
Formula Description (Result)
=ISBLANK(A2) Checks whether cell C2 is blank (FALSE)
=ISERROR(A4) Checks whether #REF! is an error (TRUE)
=ISNA(A4) Checks whether #REF! is the #N/A error (FALSE)
=ISNA(A6) Checks whether #N/A is the #N/A error (TRUE)
=ISERR(A6) Checks whether #N/A is an error (FALSE)
=ISNUMBER(A5) Checks whether 330.92 is a number (TRUE)
=ISTEXT(A3) Checks whether Region1 is text (TRUE)



See Also:
Buy Microsoft Office 2007Change the case of textCheck if a cell contains textERROR.TYPEHide error values and error indicators in cellsInformation functionsISEVENISODDTYPE

Did this article help you?
YesNoNot what I was looking for

Site Directory
Contact Us
Privacy and Cookies

[Andy Pope]

maybe you should explain, "my results weren't correct." What were your results? What were they based on.

[ken1234]

I did indeed mean iferror
Thanks for the answers

maybe you should explain, "my results weren't correct." What were your results? What were they based on.

I didn't really have an example for when to use iferror.
I also didn't knew why people used if(iserror)) instead of iserror.

[Andy Pope]

Then I can understand your teachers comments