Question

In a microsoft excel what happens when there is an incorrect range in a formula write the error

Answer 1

Fixing Errors

1. Find errors. You can use Go to Special > Formula as described below.

2. Trace the error back to its source. If this is difficult, try the trace error feature.

3. Figure out what's causing the error. If needed, break the formula into parts.

4. Fix the error at the source.  

Video: Excel formula error examples

Video: Use F9 to debug a formula

Finding all errors

You can find all errors at once with Go To Special. Use the keyboard shortcut Control + G, then click the "Special" button. Excel will display the dialog with many options seen below. To select only errors, choose Formulas + Errors, then click "OK":

Excel Go To Special Formula Errors

Trapping Errors

Trapping errors is a way of "catching" errors to stop them appearing in the first place. This makes sense when you know certain errors are likely and you want to stop error messages from appearing. There are two basic approaches:

2. Trap the error with IFERROR or ISERROR. With this approach you are watching for an error, and providing an alternative when an error is detected. This page shows a VLOOKUP example.

3. Prevent calculation until required values are available. In this case, instead of watching for an error, you try to prevent the error from occurring by checking values first. This page shows several examples.

Excel's error codes

There are 9 error codes that you're likely to run into at some point as you work with Excel's formulas. This section shows examples of each formula error, with information and links on how to correct the error.

#DIV/0! error

As the name suggests, the #DIV/0! error appears when a formula tries to divide by zero, or by a value equivalent to zero. You may see a #DIV/0! error when data is not yet complete. For example, a cell in the worksheet is blank because data has not been entered, or is not yet available. You also may see the divide by zero error with the AVERAGEIF and AVERAGEIFS functions, when the criteria does not match any cells in the range.

For example, in the worksheet below, the DIV error displayed in cell D4 because C4 is empty. Empty cells are evaluated as zero by Excel, and B4 can't be divided by zero:

Excel #DIV/0!  error example

In many cases, empty cells or missing values are unavoidable. You can use the IFERRROR function to trap the #DIV/0! and display a more friendly message if you like.  

More: How to fix the #DIV/0! error

#NAME? error

The #NAME? error indicates that Excel does not recognize something. This could be a function name misspelled, a named range that doesn't exist, or a cell reference entered incorrectly. For example, in the screen below, the VLOOKUP function in F3 is misspelled "VLOKUP". VLOKUP is not a valid name, so the formula returns #NAME?.

Excel #NAME? error example

To fix a #NAME? error, you must find the problem, then correct spelling or a syntax. For more details and examples, see this page.

Video: How to use F9 to debug a formula error

#N/A error

The #N/A error appears when something can't be found. It tells you something is missing or misspelled. This could be a product code not yet available, an employee name misspelled, a color that doesn't exist, etc. Often, #N/A errors are caused by extra space characters, misspellings, or an incomplete lookup table. The functions mostly commonly affected by the #N/A error are classic lookup functions, including VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, LOOKUP, and MATCH.

For example, in the screen below, the formula in F3 returns #N/A because "Bacon" is not in the lookup table:

Excel #N/A error example

If the value in E3 is changed to "coffee", "eggs", etc. VLOOKUP will work normally and retrieve the item cost.

The best way to prevent #N/A errors is to make sure lookup values and lookup tables are correct and complete. If necessary, you can trap the #N/A error with IFERROR and display a more friendly message, or display nothing at all. '

More information: How to fix the #N/A error.

#NUM! error

The #NUM! error occurs when a number is too large or small, or when a calculation is impossible.  For example, if you try to calculate the square root of a negative number, you'll see the a #NUM error:

Excel #NUM! error example

In the screen above the SQRT function used to calculate the square root numbers in column B. The formula in C5 returns the #NUM! error because the value in B5 is negative, and it is not possible to compute the square root of a negative number.