How to use IFERROR
✓ Verified in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3 ✓ Verified in Google Sheets (2026-08-30)Show a friendly value instead of an ugly error when a formula fails — clean up #N/A, #DIV/0!, and lookup misses.
The formula
| App | Formula | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Excel (desktop) | =IFERROR(A2/B2,0) | IFERROR(formula, value if it errors). Catches EVERY error type; use IFNA to catch only #N/A. |
| Google Sheets | =IFERROR(A2/B2,0) | Identical. |
| LibreOffice Calc | =IFERROR(A2/B2,0) | Identical. |
How it works
IFERROR runs the first argument and, if it produces any error, returns the second instead: 10/0 would be #DIV/0!, so IFERROR gives 0. The fallback can be a number, text ("Not found"), or a blank (""). Its most common use is wrapping lookups: =IFERROR(VLOOKUP(...),"-"). One caution worth knowing: IFERROR hides ALL errors, including real bugs like a #REF! from a deleted column or a #NAME? typo — so it can mask problems you'd want to see. When you only mean to handle a lookup miss, IFNA (which catches only #N/A) is the safer, more precise choice.
Verified, not just documented
We ran =IFERROR(A2/B2,0) in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3 (headless, with forced recalculation) and it returned 0 — exactly the expected result. We then ran the same formulas in Google Sheets, executed 2026-08-30: a formula-only workbook goes into Google Drive, which converts it to a Sheet and recalculates every formula with Google’s own engine, and comes back out as .xlsx carrying the values Google computed. It returned 0 for the worked example, the same value LibreOffice produced. Both engines’ numbers on this page are executed results. The Excel formula follows Microsoft’s official documented syntax — we do not run desktop Excel.
Functions used
IFERROR — see full Excel, Google Sheets & LibreOffice compatibility for each.
Related recipes
- How to extract numbers from text in a cell
- How to hide formula errors (show 0 or blank instead of #DIV/0!, #N/A)
- How to reference a cell on another sheet