Understanding Worksheet Errors


When a formula cannot be properly calculated, an error is returned in the cell. The following table lists the errors that can be generated and their causes.

Error Cause
#DIV/0! Divide by zero. May be caused by a reference to a blank cell or a cell containing zero.
#FORMULA! Formula cannot be calculated. May be caused when opening a workbook from another file format.
#N/A No value is available. May be caused by inappropriate values in the formula or by a reference to a cell containing the #N/A value.
#NAME? Name is not recognized. May be caused because a user-defined name is not defined, a function name is misspelled, or you are using an add-in function whose JAR file is not in your class path.
#NULL! Null intersection. An intersection of two ranges that do not intersect was specified.
#NUM! Number problem. May be caused by inappropriate numbers in functions, an iteration that cannot solve for a value, or a formula that results in a number too large or too small to represent.
#REF! Reference error. May be caused by referring to a cell whose data was deleted.
#VALUE! Wrong data type. May be caused by entering text where a number was expected or by supplying a range to an operator or function that was expecting a single value.