ISERROR
Supported, behaves as documentedCategory: Information · Last tested 2026-09-01
Real compatibility results for the ISERROR function: executed in Excel for the web, Google Sheets and LibreOffice Calc, with desktop Excel behavior from Microsoft’s official documentation (we do not run desktop Excel — Excel for the web is a different application and is executed separately). Syntax and links to that documentation are below.
Support matrix
| Engine | Documented | Live-tested | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Excel (desktop) | Yes | No — documented only | n/a |
| Excel for the web | — | Yes (recalc, 2026-09-01) | Supported, behaves as documented |
| Google Sheets | Yes | Yes (Drive import, 2026-08-29) | Supported, behaves as documented |
| LibreOffice Calc | Yes | Yes (25.8.7.3, 2026-08-28) | Supported, behaves as documented |
LibreOffice version history
We executed the same test cases under each LibreOffice release to show exactly when ISERROR’s support changed — not documentation claims, real results.
| LibreOffice version | Verdict | Tested |
|---|---|---|
| 24.2.0.3 | Supported, behaves as documented | 2026-08-29 |
| 24.8.7.2 | Supported, behaves as documented | 2026-08-29 |
| 25.2.0.3 | Supported, behaves as documented | 2026-08-29 |
| 25.8.7.3 | Supported, behaves as documented | 2026-08-28 |
externalLinks part; the downloaded one contains two, targeting Nope and NotACell — the literal text arguments of the INDIRECT calls. Excel for the web read 'Nope'!B2 as a reference into a workbook named Nope and could not resolve it, which is why the cell holds 0 rather than #REF!, why ISERROR is FALSE and why ISREF is TRUE. Whether the blank comes from the declined “trust externally linked workbooks” prompt or from an unresolvable external evaluating empty in this engine, this run cannot tell — and both are facts about the link, not about the function. The value is published as it came back and no verdict is drawn from it.
Executed test cases
Excel for the web (executed 2026-09-01 via OneDrive recalculation)
These values come from Excel for the web, not from desktop Excel. They are two different implementations of the calculation engine, and this run measured only the web one: the corpus was uploaded to OneDrive as .xlsx, recalculated by Excel for the web on open, and downloaded again for readback. Excel for the web is a rolling service with no pinnable version, so the run is identified by its date. Where a value here disagrees with the Expected column — which is Microsoft’s documentation of the desktop product — we cannot tell you whether the web engine diverges from the desktop one or the documentation is wrong about both, because we do not run desktop Excel.
| Formula | Description | Result | Expected | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| =ISERROR(1/0) | ISERROR is TRUE for a #DIV/0! error, one of ANY error type it catches (per support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/is-functions-0f2d7971-6019-40a0-a171-f2d869135665) | True | True | Matched |
| =ISERROR(NA()) | ISERROR is also TRUE for #N/A specifically (unlike ISERR, which excludes #N/A) -- contrast with ISERR_na and ISNA_na in the sibling test files | True | True | Matched |
| =ISERROR("a"+1) | ISERROR is TRUE for a #VALUE! error (text coerced into arithmetic) | True | True | Matched |
| =ISERROR(5) | A plain non-error number -> FALSE | False | False | Matched |
| =ISERROR(INDIRECT("'Nope'!B2")) | ISERROR over an INDIRECT naming a sheet that does not exist: the #REF! is an error value, so TRUE | False | TrueProvenanceMicrosoft documents ISERROR as TRUE for any error value (#N/A, #VALUE!, #REF!, #DIV/0!, #NUM!, #NAME? or #NULL!): https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/is-functions-0f2d7971-6019-40a0-a171-f2d869135665 |
Inconclusive |
Google Sheets (executed 2026-08-29 via Drive import)
Google Sheets is a rolling service with no pinnable version, so this run is identified by its date. The corpus was imported to Drive as .xlsx, recalculated by Sheets, and exported back for readback.
| Formula | Description | Result | Expected | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| =ISERROR(1/0) | ISERROR is TRUE for a #DIV/0! error, one of ANY error type it catches (per support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/is-functions-0f2d7971-6019-40a0-a171-f2d869135665) | True | True | Matched |
| =ISERROR(NA()) | ISERROR is also TRUE for #N/A specifically (unlike ISERR, which excludes #N/A) -- contrast with ISERR_na and ISNA_na in the sibling test files | True | True | Matched |
| =ISERROR("a"+1) | ISERROR is TRUE for a #VALUE! error (text coerced into arithmetic) | True | True | Matched |
| =ISERROR(5) | A plain non-error number -> FALSE | False | False | Matched |
| =ISERROR(INDIRECT("'Nope'!B2")) | ISERROR over an INDIRECT naming a sheet that does not exist: the #REF! is an error value, so TRUE | True | TrueProvenanceMicrosoft documents ISERROR as TRUE for any error value (#N/A, #VALUE!, #REF!, #DIV/0!, #NUM!, #NAME? or #NULL!): https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/is-functions-0f2d7971-6019-40a0-a171-f2d869135665 |
Matched |
LibreOffice Calc 25.8.7.3 (tested 2026-08-28)
| Formula | Description | Result | Expected | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| =ISERROR(1/0) | ISERROR is TRUE for a #DIV/0! error, one of ANY error type it catches (per support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/is-functions-0f2d7971-6019-40a0-a171-f2d869135665) | True | True | Matched |
| =ISERROR(NA()) | ISERROR is also TRUE for #N/A specifically (unlike ISERR, which excludes #N/A) -- contrast with ISERR_na and ISNA_na in the sibling test files | True | True | Matched |
| =ISERROR("a"+1) | ISERROR is TRUE for a #VALUE! error (text coerced into arithmetic) | True | True | Matched |
| =ISERROR(5) | A plain non-error number -> FALSE | False | False | Matched |
| =ISERROR(INDIRECT("'Nope'!B2")) | ISERROR over an INDIRECT naming a sheet that does not exist: the #REF! is an error value, so TRUE | True | TrueProvenanceMicrosoft documents ISERROR as TRUE for any error value (#N/A, #VALUE!, #REF!, #DIV/0!, #NUM!, #NAME? or #NULL!): https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/is-functions-0f2d7971-6019-40a0-a171-f2d869135665 |
Matched |
Docs & syntax
- Excel (desktop): official documentation
- Google Sheets: official documentation
- LibreOffice Calc: official documentation
Related how-to recipes
Where ISERROR behaves differently
- DOLLARDE and DOLLARFR: fractional bond prices across engines
Executed: all eight valid DOLLARDE/DOLLARFR conversions match Microsoft's documented values in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3 and Google Sheets, including the documented truncation of a non-integer fraction. All four error cases return #VALUE! in LibreOffice where #DIV/0! or #NUM! is documented; Google Sheets returns the documented code. - ERROR.TYPE: LibreOffice returns #N/A where Excel returns 4 and 6
LibreOffice returns #N/A where Excel documents 4 and 6; executed Google Sheets returns 4 and 6 but cannot parse the intersection operator at all. Error-classification logic breaks on migration. - IFERROR doesn't catch INDIRECT's #REF! in LibreOffice
=IFERROR(INDIRECT("'Nope'!B2"),"missing") returns #REF! instead of the fallback in every LibreOffice Calc build we ran - 24.2.0.3 through 25.8.7.3. Executed Google Sheets returns the fallback. - Every error code LibreOffice reports as #VALUE!
Across our 2,334-case executed corpus, 272 cases in 135 functions return #VALUE! in LibreOffice Calc 25.8.7.3 where Microsoft documents #NUM! (244), #N/A (15), #DIV/0! (10) or #REF! (3). Google Sheets returns the documented code on 239 of the 249 it has a function for. Identical in all four LibreOffice builds tested. - #NUM! vs #VALUE!: Excel vs LibreOffice
Domain errors Microsoft documents as #NUM! - LN(0), SQRT(-16), out-of-range LARGE - return #VALUE! in LibreOffice. Google Sheets returns #NUM! on all 16, executed: LibreOffice is alone. - PERCENTRANK significance: Excel truncates, Sheets and LibreOffice round
Executed: PERCENTRANK.INC(A2:A11,4) returns 0.556 in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3 and Google Sheets, and 0.555 in Excel for the web, where Microsoft publishes 0.555, and at significance 1 PERCENTRANK.EXC returns 0.4 against a published 0.3. The ranking arithmetic matches everywhere; only the significance step differs, and only on repeating decimals. - TYPE(TRUE): Excel 4 vs LibreOffice 1
Excel documents TYPE(TRUE) as 4 and TYPE(A1:A3) as 64; LibreOffice returns 1 for both. The booleans-are-numbers theme breaks logic that branches on TYPE codes. - VLOOKUP bad column index: Excel #REF! vs LibreOffice #VALUE!
Microsoft documents an out-of-range col_index_num as #REF!; LibreOffice Calc returns #VALUE! instead. The lookup still fails — but every guard written around #REF! stops matching.