Have you performed division calculations with a 0 in Google Sheets and get an answer “#DIV/0!”? Or perform a VLOOKUP and have many cells return with “#N/A”. While these results aren’t inaccurate, they are annoying to see and sometimes it’s better to use our own defined value for these cases.
Luckily Google Sheets has included the IFERROR function to help us change these results.
IFERROR will switch to using a secondary value or function if the original function returns an error. It is a great way to place meaning to the results other than “#DIV/0!” or”#N/A!”.
How to Implement IFERROR
The IFERROR function is basic with two arguments:
- Value: The primary function or value to be used in the cell
- Value_IF_Error: The secondary function or value to be used if the first returns an error
Now we can define our errors. In the following example below, a new site (Site C) is created and is included in a month over month (MOM) growth report. The report for Site C would show “#VALUE!” without IFERROR.
Wrapping It Up
The IFERROR is a convenient tool that lets us define errors in our data. It can be combined with other functions found within Google Sheets such as VLOOKUP, division functions, and many more.
Did this article help you with IFERROR or did you have extra questions? Let us know in the comments below.