Home » Excel-Built-In-Functions » Excel-Isna-Function

The Excel ISNA function tests if an initial supplied expression (or value) returns the Excel #N/A Error, and if so, returns TRUE; Otherwise the function returns FALSE.

The Excel #N/A error is returned if an Excel formula is unable to find a value. For example, if the Excel VLOOKUP function is asked to look up the value '10' in a spreadsheet column, but there is no cell containing the value 10, the function will, instead, return the #N/A error.

The format of the Excel ISNA function is :

Where the Value argument can refer to either a direct value, an Excel formula or a cell reference.

Examples

The following spreadsheet shows examples, of the Excel ISNA function being used to determine whether a value or expression returns an error :

The results of the above function calls are shown in the spreadsheet below :

In the examples above, the ISNA function arguments are :

• Simple values in cells B1 - B3
• Expressions in cells B4 & B5
• Cell references in cells B6 & B7

Note that :

• In cell B4, the division by zero DOES produce an error, but this is not the #N/A error, so the ISNA function returns FALSE
• In cell B5, the value '10' cannot be found in column C, so the VLOOKUP function produces the #N/A error

For more details of the different types of Excel error messages, see the page on Excel Formula Errors.