Return the logical value TRUE if a cell contains the #N/A error
=ISBLANK(value)
Return the logical value TRUE if a cell contains the #N/A error and FALSE for any other value or error type.
ISNA is part of the collective IS functions which check specified values and return TRUE or FALSE depending on the outcome. The IS functions are useful for testing the outcome of a calculation and can be combined with the IF function in formulas to locate errors or get information about a value before performing another calculation.
The collective of IS functions are ISBLANK(value), ISERR(value), ISERROR(value), ISLOGICAL(value), ISNA(value), ISNONTEXT(value), ISNUMBER(value), ISREF(value) and ISTEXT(value).
To test the reverse of the function (e.g. to test if a cell is NOT blank), combine the ISNA and NOT functions - =NOT(ISNA(C7)) where cell reference C7 is the value being tested.
ISNA syntax requires a value to test. The value argument can be a blank (empty) cell, error, logical value, text, number, reference value, or a name referring to any of these.
ISNA with text strings or numerical values.
In the examples below, the ISNA function is used to determine whether cells contain the #N/A error. ISNA is also combined with an IF function to determine which of 2 possible outputs are returned.
Use the ISNA function to return the logical value TRUE if a cell contains the #N/A error.
Syntax
ISNA (value)
The ISNA function requires 1 value argument:
- value. Required. Generally a cell reference.
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Scope
ISNA can be used on its own to determine whether a cell contains a #N/A error or combined within a formula to test a value prior to performing additional operations.
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=ISNA(1/0) || result is FALSE as 1/0 does not trigger a #N/A error, rather a #DIV/0! error. |
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=ISNA(C7) || result is FALSE if cell reference C7 does not contain a #N/A error. |
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=IF(ISNA(C7),"You have an error!","The formula is perfect!") || when ISNA is TRUE, the result is "You have an error!", otherwise it is "The formula is perfect!" |
Caveats
- Value arguments are not converted. Numeric values enclosed in double quotation marks are treated as text (e.g. "22"). Any IS functions requiring numeric values will therefore return a FALSE if the value is a text string.
- To explicitly return the #N/A error in a formula, you can use the NA() function. =ISNA(NA()) returns TRUE.
Related Functions
- ISBLANK returns the logical value TRUE if a cell is blank or empty.
- ISERR returns the logical value TRUE for any error type except the #N/A error.
- ISERROR returns the logical value TRUE for any error type.
- ISLOGICAL returns the logical value TRUE if the cell contains either a TRUE or FALSE statement.
- ISNA returns the logical value TRUE if a cell contains the #N/A error
- ISNONTEXT returns the logical value TRUE if the cell contains any value that is not text.
- ISNUMBER returns the logical value TRUE if the cell contains a number.
- ISREF returns the logical value TRUE if the cell contains a reference.
- ISTEXT returns the logical value TRUE if the cell contains any text.
Functions Category