Comments on: Excel question, I keep getting a #Value!!

Question: Excel question, I keep getting a #Value!!

penguingrl — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:06:38 -0800

Why does the following formula provide a #Value! instead of False and how do I fix it?

The formula below is not working for me...

=IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("rejected",A10)),"true",IF(SEARCH("paper",A10),"true","false"))

Also, if anyone has any reason as to why this formula requires 'ISNUMBER' to work...that would be great.

By: arm426

arm426 — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:10:01 -0800

What's the purpose of the formula--to display "true" when a cell says rejected or paper and false if it says neither?

By: dfriedman

dfriedman — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:12:55 -0800

I get "true" not #Value! when I try to formula.

I would look at the formatting of the contents of cell A10. Is the text that you see actually formatted as text?

By: emumimic

emumimic — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:27:31 -0800

I had dfriedman's experience; if the formula is supposed to do what arm426 says, then it works for me.

I don't think you need ISNUMBER (or maybe you need it because you're using SEARCH), but I got the same result by using:

=IF(A10="rejected","true",IF(A10="paper","true","false"))

By: penguingrl

penguingrl — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:32:06 -0800

When it should say False it says #Value! instead. So, when rejected or paper are not present in the cell it says #Value! and not False.

By: dfriedman

dfriedman — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:32:16 -0800

You need ISNUMBER if there is a text string in A10. If the only text in A10 is either "rejected" OR "paper" with no other accompanying text then you do not need the ISNUMBER(SEARCH(...)) syntax.

By: dfriedman

dfriedman — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:35:03 -0800

Try:

=IF(OR(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("rejected",A10)),(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("paper",A10)))),"true","false")

By: emumimic

emumimic — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:39:44 -0800

Oh, got it. Try this:
=IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("paper",A10)),"true",IF(ISNUMBER(SEARCH("rejected",A10)),"true","false"))

By: emumimic

emumimic — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:41:03 -0800

Or dfriedman's more elegant version :)

By: dfriedman

dfriedman — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 17:44:24 -0800

When I am trying to do these complex logic statements in Excel, I find it helps me to articulate the logic: "IF "rejected" OR "paper" are in cell A10, THEN return "true", ELSE return "false."

This tells me that I need to use the OR(...) syntax with something nested into it.

By: penguingrl

penguingrl — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 18:21:42 -0800

Thank you, guys, it worked! I also didn't know Excel is not a fan of copying and pasting equations, but when I wrote it manually, it worked!