Averaging a set of fields in which there are #DIV/0! errors

[marshallh]

I am attempting to average most of a column of numbers. That column is made up of a series of cells that attempt to average a pair of cells on each of their respective rows.

I do not yet have a complete set of data for those cells to average. I may never get them. So some of those initial fields are just empty. So in cell E7 =AVERAGE(C7:D7) is currently returning #DIV/0! because both C7 and D7 are empty. Though the error is annoying, it being there isn't the big issue.

The issue is that I want to average the cells in the E column that do have real numbers in them and effectively ignore the fields that return #DIV/0!. I feel like the solution is some simple kind of IFERROR thing. But I admit to being a real novice in Excel.

 

[Fluff]

Hi & welcome to MrExcel.
In E7 use

=IFERROR(AVERAGE(C7:D7),"")

 

[marshallh]

Just for my own edification, we are nesting the average function inside the iferror function with the use of parentheses, but dont the empty quotes just tell the cell to return "nothing" if there is an error? And is "if there is no error, just do the nested function" somehow implied? How does it know to actually perform the function on the cells that that dont return an error?

And last question in the cell that averages the averages (E25 in this case), why doesn't it return a #DIV/0! error given that now many of the fields above it are returning (effectively) blank fields?

 

[Fluff]

Have a look here to understand the iferror function. How to use the Excel IFERROR function | Exceljet

why doesn't it return a #DIV/0!

Because it's not dividing anything by 0