Remove error flags in google sheets

May 8, 2019 11:07 AM

I have a spreadsheet that purposely has look up errors in it. This leaves the empty cells blank as a visual cue. The other cells with values have conditional color formatting. Is there a way to remove the little red triangle error flags from each cell with an error?
posted by gryphonlover to Computers & Internet (4 answers total)

Best answer: What I do is wrap it in an IF:
If(iserror(vlookup(whatever)),"",vlookup(whatever))
So if it finds an error doing the vlookup it just shows nothing. This also gives you the opportunity to put something else there if you want (a zero, or the word BLANK, or whatever you might need.)

(exact syntax might vary between excel & google)
posted by bleep at 11:42 AM on May 8, 2019

Best answer: See also 'iferror', at least in Google Sheets.
posted by sagc at 11:45 AM on May 8, 2019

Best answer: Yeah excel & google sheets both have "iferror", so you don't need the full if statement above, just:

=iferror(vlookup(whatever),"")

That will give you the result you want if there's no error, and an empty cell if there is an error.
If you want it to say something else you could do

=iferror(vlookup(whatever),0)
or
=iferror(vlookup(whatever),"ERROR")

or whatever you want after the comma
posted by brainmouse at 11:52 AM on May 8, 2019

Response by poster: Thank you! I can’t believe how easy this was. No more million red flags!
posted by gryphonlover at 4:01 PM on May 8, 2019