Excel #N/A, #VALUE!, #REF!, #DIV/0! and #NAME? explained
A practical way to diagnose common Excel formula errors before hiding them with IFERROR.
Key points
- #N/A often means a lookup could not find a match.
- #VALUE! often points to incompatible data types or arguments.
- #REF! means a reference is no longer valid.
- #DIV/0! means the denominator is zero or blank.
- #NAME? often comes from spelling, quotes or version support.
- Use IFERROR after diagnosing the underlying issue.
Verify before production use
Keep the original data, test edge cases and verify important outputs.