1/15/2018 How to correct a #N/A error - Office Support

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Excel / Formulas and functions / Errors / How to correct a #N/A error

How to correct a #N/A error

Applies To: Excel 2016, Excel 2013, Excel 2010, Excel 2007, Excel 2016 for Mac, More...

The #N/A error generally indicates that a formula can’t find what it’s been asked to look for.

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Top solution
The most common cause of the #N/A error is with VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, LOOKUP, or MATCH
functions if a formula can’t find a referenced value. For example, your lookup value doesn’t exist
in the source data.

Item not found in source data

In this case there is no “Banana” listed in the lookup table, so VLOOKUP returns a #N/A error.

Solution: Either make sure that the lookup value exists in the source data, or use an error handler
such as IFERROR in the formula. For example, =IFERROR(FORMULA(),0), which says:

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=IF(your formula evaluates to an error, then display 0, otherwise display the formula’s result)

You can use “” to display nothing, or substitute your own text: =IFERROR(FORMULA(),”Error
Message here”)

If you’re not sure what to do at this point or what kind of help you need, you can search for
similar questions in the Excel Community Forum, or post one of your own.

Note: Click here if you need help on the #N/A error with a specific function, like VLOOKUP or
INDEX/MATCH.

If you want to move forward, then the following checklist provides troubleshooting steps to help
you figure out what may have gone wrong in your formulas.

Incorrect value types 

There is extra spacing in the cells 

Using the Approximate Match vs. Exact Match method (TRUE/FALSE) 

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An array formula references a range that doesn’t have the same number of rows or 
columns as the range that contains the array formula

If you have manually entered #N/A or NA() in cells because data was missing, replace it 
with actual data as soon as it’s available. Until you do this, formulas that refer to these
cells can’t calculate a value and will return the #N/A error instead.

A formula using a predefined or user-defined function is missing one or more required 

arguments.

A user-defined function you entered isn't available. 

A macro you run uses a function that returns #N/A 

You edit a protected file that contains functions such as CELL, and the contents of the 
cells turn to N/A errors

Need help understanding a function's arguments? 

Using #N/A with charts 

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For more information on a #NA error appearing in a

specific function, see the topics below:
Correct the #N/A error in VLOOKUP function

Correct the #N/A error in INDEX/MATCH functions

Top of page

Need more help?

You can always ask an expert in the Excel Tech Community, get support in the Answers
community, or suggest a new feature or improvement on Excel User Voice.

See Also
Convert numbers stored as text to numbers

VLOOKUP function

HLOOKUP function
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1/15/2018 How to correct a #N/A error - Office Support

LOOKUP function

MATCH function

Overview of formulas in Excel

How to avoid broken formulas

Use error checking to detect errors in formulas

Keyboard shortcuts in Excel for Windows

Keyboard shortcuts in Excel for Mac

All Excel functions (alphabetical)

All Excel functions (by category)

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