Datasheet

The second type of error is when there is a mistake in the formula or in the
data the formula uses that prevents Excel from calculating the result. Excel
makes your life easier by telling you when such an error occurs. To be pre-
cise, it does one of the following:
 Excel displays a message when you attempt to enter a formula that is
not constructed correctly.
 Excel returns an error message in the cell when there is something
wrong with the result of the calculation.
First, let’s see what happened when we tried to finish entering a formula that
had the wrong number of parentheses. Figure 1-19 shows this.
Excel finds an uneven number of open and closed parentheses. Therefore the
formula cannot work (it does not make sense mathematically) and Excel tells
you so. Watch for these messages; they often offer a solution.
On the other side of the fence are errors in returned values. If you got this far,
then the formula’s syntax passed muster, but something went awry nonethe-
less. Possible errors are:
 Attempting to perform a mathematical operation on text
 Attempting to divide a number by 0 (a mathematical no-no)
 Trying to reference a nonexistent cell, range, worksheet, or workbook
 Entering the wrong type of information into an argument function
This is by no means an exhaustive list of possible error conditions, but you
get the idea. So what does Excel do about it? There are a handful of errors
that Excel places into the cell with the problem formula.
Figure 1-19:
Getting a
message
from Excel.
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Chapter 1: Tapping into Formula and Function Fundamentals
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