ERROR.TYPE

Microsoft Office Excel 2003

See Also

Returns a number corresponding to one of the error values in Microsoft Excel or returns the #N/A error if no error exists. You can use ERROR.TYPE in an IF function to test for an error value and return a text string, such as a message, instead of the error value.

Syntax

ERROR.TYPE(error_val)

Error_val    is the error value whose identifying number you want to find. Although error_val can be the actual error value, it will usually be a reference to a cell containing a formula that you want to test.

If error_val is ERROR.TYPE returns
#NULL! 1
#DIV/0! 2
#VALUE! 3
#REF! 4
#NAME? 5
#NUM! 6
#N/A 7
Anything else #N/A
Example

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

ShowHow?

  1. Create a blank workbook or worksheet.
  2. Select the example in the Help topic. Do not select the row or column headers.

    Selecting an example from Help

    Selecting an example from Help

  3. Press CTRL+C.
  4. In the worksheet, select cell A1, and press CTRL+V.
  5. 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.
 
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Data
#NULL!
=1/0
Formula Description (Result)
=ERROR.TYPE(A2) Number of the #NULL! error (1)
=IF(ERROR.TYPE(A3)<3,CHOOSE(ERROR.TYPE(A3),"Ranges do not intersect","The divisor is zero")) Checks cell A3 to see whether the cell contains either the #NULL! error value or the #DIV/0! error value. If it does, then the number for the error value is used in the CHOOSE worksheet function to display one of two messages; otherwise, the #N/A error value is returned. (The divisor is zero.)