Excel Tips & Tricks

Common Excel Return Errors

#VALUE!

This usually happens when you pull a copy of a tab to a different workbook without breaking the link.

Try opening both of those workbooks at the same time. The #VALUE errors should resolve themselves on this one. Then go to Edit Links and break the link.

1. Open the destination workbook.

2. On the Data tab, in the Connections group, click Edit Links.

3. In the Edit Links dialog box, click the source workbook that you want to change.

4. Click Break Link.

#NAME?

This one occurs because Excel does not recognize the name of the function that has been entered. The top reason why the #NAME? error appears in your formula is because there is a typo in the formula name. Review your formula for errors. Is your formula name correct? =sun instead of =sum?

#DIV/0!

This is an easy one, as the error code tells you exactly what is wrong.

Obviously this one occurs when you try to divide by zero. It can also occur when you divide by an empty cell in your formula.

#REF!

The reference error tells you that the formula is referring to an invalid cell.

This error commonly occurs because a column or row has been deleted and a cell in that column or row was being referenced in a formula.

#N/A

The N/A error occurs when no value is available or an inappropriate argument was used. Most commonly, it is associated with lookup functions when the value that’s being referenced cannot be found.