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#1
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ISERR vs ISERROR
Hi Folks,
The only difference I can see between these two is that ISERR will not handle #N/A. Also, what about ISNA? Is there any advantage in using ISERROR over the others? None of the books I have, or XL Help for that matter, really differentiates these functions but for the #N/A error. Anyone have some insight on this? Thanks Biff |
#2
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ISERR vs ISERROR
Hi Biff,
ISERROR will trap all error values. ISERR will trap all error values except #N/A ISNA will only trap #N/A so if you want to trap all errors use ISERROR. hth Charles ______________________ Decision Models The Excel Calculation Site www.DecisionModels.com "Biff" wrote in message ... Hi Folks, The only difference I can see between these two is that ISERR will not handle #N/A. Also, what about ISNA? Is there any advantage in using ISERROR over the others? None of the books I have, or XL Help for that matter, really differentiates these functions but for the #N/A error. Anyone have some insight on this? Thanks Biff |
#3
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ISERR vs ISERROR
"Biff" wrote in message
... Hi Folks, The only difference I can see between these two is that ISERR will not handle #N/A. Also, what about ISNA? Is there any advantage in using ISERROR over the others? None of the books I have, or XL Help for that matter, really differentiates these functions but for the #N/A error. Anyone have some insight on this? Thanks Biff I can't see why you are asking a question to which you are giving the answer! The only difference between ISERROR and ISERR is exactly as you state: ISERROR refers to all error values, whereas ISERR refers to all excelp #N/A. (ISNA refers only to #N/A.) Which to use depends on what you want to do. It's rather like COUNT and COUNTIF - use the former if you want to count everything and the latter if you want less than everything. |
#4
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ISERR vs ISERROR
Perhaps Biff's question is "if ISERROR does all that ISERR can & more,
what's the point of ISERR?". Y'know, kinda phispholosphical. Rgds, Andy |
#5
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ISERR vs ISERROR
The returned value #N/A is not always an error. In a lookup for example you
may expect to get NA sometimes. But you never 'expect' to get #VALUE! or #DIV/0! - they are always errors. So the Excel programmers gave us a way of telling the two cases apart for advanced applications. =ISERR(..) is more convenient than =AND(ISERROR(..), NOT ISNA(...)) Bernard "Biff" wrote in message ... Hi Folks, The only difference I can see between these two is that ISERR will not handle #N/A. Also, what about ISNA? Is there any advantage in using ISERROR over the others? None of the books I have, or XL Help for that matter, really differentiates these functions but for the #N/A error. Anyone have some insight on this? Thanks Biff |
#6
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ISERR vs ISERROR
"Biff" wrote...
The only difference I can see between these two is that ISERR will not handle #N/A. Also, what about ISNA? Is there any advantage in using ISERROR over the others? None of the books I have, or XL Help for that matter, really differentiates these functions but for the #N/A error. Anyone have some insight on this? The only difference is that #N/A isn't as much an error value as the other error values are. At least that's what should be the case. However, since Lotus fubarred @FIND in 123R2 (1986), returning ERR when the substring wasn't found in the string searched, the distinction between NA and ERR (in 123), so #N/A and the other error values (in Excel), has been obscured if not lost entirely. Also, if Lotus had implemented NA correctly, it wouldn't propagate through most formulas - it'd be treated more like missing values in stats packages. But Lotus *did* treat NA like an error, and Microsoft copied 123 functionality in Excel back in the days when Lotus controlled the lion's share of the application software market. The rest, as they say, is history. More 123 background. 123 contains @ISNA and @ISERR. @ISNA(@NA) returns 1 (True), but @ISNA(@ERR) returns 0 (False). On the other hand, @ISERR(@NA) returns 0, but @ISERR(@ERR) returns 1. So Excel's ISNA and ISERR functions are modelled on 123's corresponding functions, and date from the period when Microsoft believed they had to copy as much 123 functionality as possible. ISERROR was an Excel extension, and has become more practical than the other two functions. Well, more practical than ISERR. There may still be sound arguments for using ISNA to catch lookup values not found in MATCH or ?LOOKUP calls, which would allow, say, #REF! and #NAME? results to propagate, which is more often than not a very good thing. To be as minimalist as possible, Excel doesn't need anything other than ISERROR and ERROR.TYPE. ISERR and ISNA are superfluous. But they need to continue to exist in Excel in order to support workbook that still depend on them. -- Never attach files. Snip unnecessary quoted text. Never multipost (though crossposting is usually OK). Don't change subject lines because it corrupts Google newsgroup archives. |
#7
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ISERR vs ISERROR
Exactly!
After reading Harlan's and Bernard's responses, I can see where the use of ISNA over ISERROR would be more practicle in certain situations where #N/A could lead to errors downstream. Biff -----Original Message----- Perhaps Biff's question is "if ISERROR does all that ISERR can & more, what's the point of ISERR?". Y'know, kinda phispholosphical. Rgds, Andy . |
#8
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ISERR vs ISERROR
Thanks to everyone for their input!
Biff -----Original Message----- Hi Folks, The only difference I can see between these two is that ISERR will not handle #N/A. Also, what about ISNA? Is there any advantage in using ISERROR over the others? None of the books I have, or XL Help for that matter, really differentiates these functions but for the #N/A error. Anyone have some insight on this? Thanks Biff . |
#9
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ISERR vs ISERROR
"Bernard Liengme" wrote...
The returned value #N/A is not always an error. In a lookup for example you may expect to get NA sometimes. But you never 'expect' to get #VALUE! or #DIV/0! - they are always errors. . . . =FIND("this","is a counterexample") Unfortunately, #VALUE! isn't always an error like #REF! and #NAME? are. In some instances, it represents the same thing that #N/A does in different contexts. This is only Microsoft's fault to the extent that they believed they had to duplicate 123 functionality as closely as possible. The actual blame for this thoroughly boneheaded bit of semantics is exclusively Lotus Development Corp's. . . . So the Excel programmers gave us a way of telling the two cases apart for advanced applications. =ISERR(..) is more convenient than =AND(ISERROR(..), NOT ISNA(...)) Actually, the Lotus programmers (though maybe credit goes to the VisiCalc programmers) gave the world @ISNA and @ISERR, the functionality of which Microsoft copied in Excel with ISNA and ISERR. Excel's ISERROR function is the extension. -- Never attach files. Snip unnecessary quoted text. Never multipost (though crossposting is usually OK). Don't change subject lines because it corrupts Google newsgroup archives. |
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