How to find missing values with COUNTIF

Or, how to find values in a list that don’t appear in another list. Let’s take a look. In this worksheet, on the left, I have a list of 20 names. On the right, I have a much larger list of over 1000 names. How can I quickly figure out which names in the smaller list also appear in the bigger list? Well, there are several ways that we can approach this with formulas in Excel....

April 14, 2025 · 2 min · 226 words · Erika Parker

How to find text with a formula

Question: What formula tells you if A1containsthe text “apple”? This is a surprisingly tricky problem in Excel. But FIND has an annoying quirk if itdoesn’tfind “apple”, it returns the #VALUE error. Unfortunately, this error appears even if we wrap the FIND function in the IF function. Nobody likes to see errors in their spreadsheets. (There may be some good reason for this, but returning zero would be much nicer.) What about theSEARCH function, which also locates the position of text?...

April 14, 2025 · 1 min · 193 words · Danielle Jimenez

How to fix a circular reference error

This creates an infinite loop that cannot be resolved. To find circular references, navigate to Formulas > Error checking > Circular references. This might cause them to calculate incorrectly. Try removing or changing these references, or moving the formulas to different cells." This warning will appear sporadically while editing, or when a worksheet is opened. However, unlike other errors (#N/A, #VALUE!, etc.) circular references don’t appear directly in the cell....

April 14, 2025 · 1 min · 106 words · Sean Perez

How to fix the #### (hashtag) error

In most cases, it indicates the column width is too narrow to display the value as formatted. Drag the column marker to the right until you have doubled or even tripled the width. Dates and timesmust be positive values. error How to fix the #REF! error How to fix the #NAME? error How to fix the #VALUE! error How to fix the #NUM! error How to fix the #NULL! error...

April 14, 2025 · 1 min · 88 words · Tammy Chang

How to fix the #CALC! error

Explanation With the introduction ofDynamic Arrays in Excel formulas, there is more emphasis onarrays. error triggers when a formula runs into a calculation error with an array. error is a “new” error in Excel, introduced with dynamic arrays. It will not appear in older versions of Excel. Empty array An empty array can trigger a #CALC! error, and this is the most common reason you may see a #CALC! error in a worksheet, especially when using theFILTER function....

April 14, 2025 · 2 min · 229 words · Judith Thompson

How to fix the #DIV/0! error

Explanation About the #DIV/0! error The #DIV/0! error appears when a formula attempts to divide by zero, or a value equivalent to zero. Like other errors, the #DIV/0! is useful, because it tells you there is something missing or unexpected in a spreadsheet. You may see #DIV/0! errors when data is being entered, but is not yet complete. For example, a cell in the worksheet is blank because data is not yet available....

April 14, 2025 · 2 min · 380 words · Robert Lutz

How to fix the #N/A error

IFERROR can gracefully catch any error and return an alternative result . Trapping the #N/A error with IFNA TheIFNA functioncan also trap and handle #N/A errors specifically. The IFERROR function, on the other hand, will catch any error. For example, even if you spell VLOOKUP incorrectly, IFERROR will return “Not found”. Based on the example above, the formula in F5 would be: Read and MATCH. error How to fix the #REF!...

April 14, 2025 · 1 min · 138 words · Zachary Taylor

How to fix the #NAME? error

Explanation The #NAME? error shows up when Excel can’t recognize something. Frequently, the #NAME? comes up whenever a function name is misspelled, but there are other causes, as explained below. Fixing a #NAME? error is usually just a matter of correcting spelling or a syntax problem. The function name “VLOOKUP” is spelled incorrectly, and the formula returns #NAME? Source data contains #NAME! If the source data for a function contains a #NAME?...

April 14, 2025 · 2 min · 296 words · David Weaver

How to fix the #NULL! error

Explanation The #NULL! Technically, the space character is the “range intersect” operator and the #NULL! error is reporting that the two ranges do not intersect. error How to fix the #REF! error How to fix the #NAME? error How to fix the #VALUE! error How to fix the #NUM! error How to fix the #NULL! error How to fix the #CALC! IFERROR is an elegant way to trap and manage errors without using more complicated nested IF statements....

April 14, 2025 · 1 min · 124 words · Emily Schmidt

How to fix the #NUM! error

Explanation The #NUM! error occurs in Excel formulas when a calculation can’t be performed. The examples below show formulas that return the #NUM error. In general, the fixing the #NUM! error is a matter of adjusting inputs as required to make a calculation possible again. error also can appear when a calculation can’t be performed. For example, the screen below shows how to use theSQRT functionto calculate the square root of a number....

April 14, 2025 · 2 min · 297 words · Jason Gordon

How to fix the #REF! error

Explanation About the #REF! error The #REF! error shows up when a reference is invalid. In the example shown, the formula in C10 returns a #REF! errors is to prevent then from occurring in the first place. If you cause a #REF! error, it’s best to fix immediately. For example, if you delete a column, and #REF! When you undo, the #REF! Finally, delete the column and confirm there are no #REF!...

April 14, 2025 · 2 min · 235 words · Nicolas Murphy

How to fix the #SPILL! error

Explanation About spilling and the #SPILL! The rectangle that encloses the values is called the “spill range”. When data changes, the spill range will expand or contract as needed. You might see new values added, or existing values disappear. InDynamic Excel(Excel 365/2021)any formula, even a simple formula without functions, can spill results. Similarly, there is no option in Excel to “disable #SPILL errors. Sometimes this is expected. The solution is just to flush the spill range of any obstructing data....

April 14, 2025 · 2 min · 329 words · Bryan Frank

How to fix the #VALUE! error

Explanation The #VALUE! error appears when a value is not the expected key in. Fixing a #VALUE! error is usually just a matter of entering the right kind of value. The #VALUE error is a bit tricky because some functions automatically ignore invalid data. error if any values are text. The examples below show formulas that return the #VALUE error, along with options to resolve. error: One option to fix is to enter the missing value in C3....

April 14, 2025 · 2 min · 299 words · Michael Steele