if, iferror in vlooup

[lezawang]

Hi

Why this formula is working

=IF(ISERROR(VLOOKUP(A2,B:B,1,FALSE)),B2,"")

I tried to use Iserror(function) without second argument and excel did not accept that but the above function works! can you please break it down. I tried to do it myself and never get it work! thank you.

Source
https://www.smartsheet.com/advanced-vlookup-multiple-criteria

 

[etaf]

ISERROR(VLOOKUP(A2,B:B,1,FALSE))
does NOT have an error condition
so you will return a TRUE if there is an Error and a FALSE if it finds the lookup

that is then the test part of an IF function

=IF(TEST,B2,"")

which means when it returns a TRUE - Lookup NOT found , it will execute the TRUE part of the IF() which is B2
when FALSE will return ""

hope that clarifies for you

The vlookup does not return anything as a value into the formula - just TRUE or FALSE

 

[Aladin Akyurek]

=ISERROR(VLOOKUP(A2,B:B,1,FALSE)

is perfectly legitimate. It will return FALSE if VLOOKUP succeeds, otherwise TRUE.

Thus:

=IF(ISERROR(VLOOKUP(A2,B:B,1,FALSE)),B2,"")

will return B2 if VLOOKUP fails.