{ "category": "Information functions", "display_name": "ERROR.TYPE", "entry_kind": "built_in_function", "eval_api": { "method": "POST", "url": "https://handbook.dnacalc.com/api/eval" }, "function_id": "FUNC.ERROR.TYPE", "implementation_state": { "answer_bank": { "excel_builds": [ "20430" ], "larger_numeric": 0, "last_bit": 0, "matched": 1227, "other_mismatch": 0, "refused": 0, "rows": 1227, "unread": 0, "worst_ulp": 0 }, "detail": "Recorded: 1,227 in the answer bank and 41 workbook cells.", "dnacalc_commit": "9e1884369a678158dd82d3d74188daf986995e87", "in_catalogue": true, "state": "matches", "state_label": "Matches every recorded Excel answer", "summary": "Matches all 1,268 recorded answers", "workbook_corpus": { "cells": 41, "matched": 41 } }, "implementations": [ { "commit": "9e1884369a678158dd82d3d74188daf986995e87", "flavour": "excel-compatibility-candidate", "language": "Rust", "name": "CalcFunc", "own_code": [ "https://github.com/DnaCalc/DnaCalc/blob/9e1884369a678158dd82d3d74188daf986995e87/crates/calc-func/src/catalogue/information.rs#L115-L115", "https://github.com/DnaCalc/DnaCalc/blob/9e1884369a678158dd82d3d74188daf986995e87/crates/calc-func/src/catalogue/information.rs#L450-L483" ], "repository": "https://github.com/DnaCalc/DnaCalc", "shared_code": [ "catalogue/aggregate::reader", "catalogue/aggregate::read_reference", "catalogue/information::unary", "catalogue/information::scalar", "catalogue/information::known", "catalogue/information::each", "catalogue/information::n", "catalogue/information::n_of", "catalogue/information::referenced" ], "source": "https://github.com/DnaCalc/DnaCalc/blob/9e1884369a678158dd82d3d74188daf986995e87/crates/calc-func/src/catalogue/information.rs#L115-L115", "state": "matches", "suite": null, "summary": "Matches all 1,268 recorded answers" } ], "json_url": "https://handbook.dnacalc.com/api/functions/FUNC.ERROR.TYPE.json", "name": "ERROR.TYPE", "notes": [ { "basis": "Four recorded readings of one cell holding #BUSY!.", "documentation": null, "evidence": [ { "commit": "2d0eddcac86413014643af81d646581d54ba57bc", "locator": "delivered_fn4_busy_error_is_typed_through_the_application", "note": "recorded answers pinned", "path": "apps/dna-onecalc/tests/acceptance.rs", "repository": "DnaCalc" }, { "commit": "2d0eddcac86413014643af81d646581d54ba57bc", "locator": "sheets q093 to q096", "note": "recorded readings", "path": "crates/calc-func/tests/captures/fn4_questions/functions-fn4.capture.json", "repository": "DnaCalc" } ], "functions": [ "FUNC.ERROR.TYPE" ], "inferred": null, "kind": "quirk", "note_id": "FN-ERROR.TYPE-001", "open": [], "recorded_on": "2026-11-04", "repros": [ { "call": "=ERROR.TYPE(B1)", "correct": null, "excel": { "bits": "0x0000000000000000", "display": "0", "kind": "number" }, "input_route": "cell-value2", "inputs": [ { "name": "B1", "value": { "bits": null, "display": "#BUSY!", "kind": "error" } } ], "recorded_in": "Excel 16.0.20527.20088 Current Channel, Windows 64-bit (NT 10.0.26200), x86-64, AMD Ryzen 7 4800H, en-ZA", "source": { "commit": "2d0eddcac86413014643af81d646581d54ba57bc", "locator": "sheet q095, row 20, column 10", "note": null, "path": "crates/calc-func/tests/captures/fn4_questions/functions-fn4.capture.json", "repository": "DnaCalc" } }, { "call": "=ISERROR(B1)", "correct": null, "excel": { "bits": null, "display": "TRUE", "kind": "logical" }, "input_route": "cell-value2", "inputs": [ { "name": "B1", "value": { "bits": null, "display": "#BUSY!", "kind": "error" } } ], "recorded_in": "Excel 16.0.20527.20088 Current Channel, Windows 64-bit (NT 10.0.26200), x86-64, AMD Ryzen 7 4800H, en-ZA", "source": { "commit": "2d0eddcac86413014643af81d646581d54ba57bc", "locator": "sheet q094, row 20, column 10", "note": null, "path": "crates/calc-func/tests/captures/fn4_questions/functions-fn4.capture.json", "repository": "DnaCalc" } }, { "call": "=IFERROR(B1,7)", "correct": null, "excel": { "bits": "0x401c000000000000", "display": "7", "kind": "number" }, "input_route": "cell-value2", "inputs": [ { "name": "B1", "value": { "bits": null, "display": "#BUSY!", "kind": "error" } } ], "recorded_in": "Excel 16.0.20527.20088 Current Channel, Windows 64-bit (NT 10.0.26200), x86-64, AMD Ryzen 7 4800H, en-ZA", "source": { "commit": "2d0eddcac86413014643af81d646581d54ba57bc", "locator": "sheet q096, row 20, column 10", "note": null, "path": "crates/calc-func/tests/captures/fn4_questions/functions-fn4.capture.json", "repository": "DnaCalc" } }, { "call": "=N(B1)", "correct": null, "excel": { "bits": null, "display": "#BUSY!", "kind": "error" }, "input_route": "cell-value2", "inputs": [ { "name": "B1", "value": { "bits": null, "display": "#BUSY!", "kind": "error" } } ], "recorded_in": "Excel 16.0.20527.20088 Current Channel, Windows 64-bit (NT 10.0.26200), x86-64, AMD Ryzen 7 4800H, en-ZA", "source": { "commit": "2d0eddcac86413014643af81d646581d54ba57bc", "locator": "sheet q093, row 20, column 10", "note": null, "path": "crates/calc-func/tests/captures/fn4_questions/functions-fn4.capture.json", "repository": "DnaCalc" } } ], "schema": "efh.function-note/v1", "statement": "With #BUSY! in the referenced cell, ERROR.TYPE gives 0, not one of its numbers for an error and not #N/A. The cell still counts as an error elsewhere: ISERROR is TRUE and IFERROR takes its fallback.", "status": "measured", "title": "ERROR.TYPE of #BUSY! is 0" } ], "schema": "efh.function-reference/v1", "section_order": [ "what-it-does", "try-it", "quirks", "how-to-implement", "version-differences", "alternatives" ], "sections": { "alternatives": "\n### Relationships\n\n\n- **`ISERROR` / `ISERR` / `ISNA`** answer *whether*; `ERROR.TYPE` answers *which*. The idiomatic\n pairing is `IF(ISERROR(x), CHOOSE(ERROR.TYPE(x), \"…\", \"…\", …), x)`, and the guard is not\n optional for the reason given above.\n- **`TYPE`** returns `16` for every error without distinguishing them; `ERROR.TYPE` is its\n refinement.\n- **`IFERROR` / `IFNA`** replace the whole diagnostic pattern when you only want a fallback\n rather than a message. `ERROR.TYPE` survives because a fallback is not a diagnosis: a\n monitoring sheet that reports *how many* `#REF!`s appeared after a restructure needs the code,\n not a substitute value.\n- **`NA()`** manufactures the value that maps to `7`.\n- **`ERROR.TYPE`'s ordering and Excel's error precedence** are the same sequence; a page or a\n test that needs the precedence order can read it off this table.\n\n\n", "how-to-implement": "\n### Notes for implementers\n\n\n1. **Emit the published numbers literally.** The codes are Excel's, not an internal enum's\n ordinals, and the mapping must not drift if the internal enum is reordered.\n2. **The \"anything else\" row must return `#N/A`, not `0` and not an error of its own.** The\n temptation to return `0` for \"no error\" is strong and wrong.\n3. **Decide the array question explicitly.** Whole-argument classification and elementwise\n lifting are both defensible; the documentation settles neither, so whichever is chosen should\n be recorded as a decision awaiting evidence.\n4. **Any error code the engine can produce but cannot name must fall to `#N/A` deliberately.**\n Silently returning a made-up number for `#SPILL!` would be worse than the documented gap.\n `#BUSY!` is the recorded exception: Excel gives it `0` (FN-ERROR.TYPE-001).\n5. **The error must reach the kernel** rather than being short-circuited by the dispatch layer.\n\n\n", "quirks": "\n### Result and edge cases\n\n\nReturns a `Number` for an error input (1–8, or `0` for `#BUSY!`; see FN-ERROR.TYPE-001), or the\n`Error` `#N/A` for everything else.\n\n- **Errors do not propagate through this function.** Like the IS classifiers, `ERROR.TYPE`\n inspects rather than forwards, and that is what makes it usable at all.\n- **`#N/A` in, `7` out.** The one input for which the function's success value and its failure\n value are related — and the reason the guard is needed.\n- **Empty, text, numbers, logicals: `#N/A`.** All \"anything else\".\n\n\n\n### Errors\n\n\n`ERROR.TYPE` returns `#N/A` as its ordinary \"not an error\" answer — that is a result, not a\nfailure.\n\nNote that the function can never return `#VALUE!` from a *value* — every value has an answer.\n\n\n", "sources": "- Microsoft, \"ERROR.TYPE function\" —\n .\n Read for this page: the syntax, the `error_val` argument description verbatim, the full code\n table including the \"Anything else\" row, and the usage sentence recommending the `IF` guard.\n- Microsoft, \"IS functions\" —\n .\n Read for the `ISERROR` row, whose seven-code enumeration omits `#GETTING_DATA`.\n- Handbook, [the value universe](../model/01-value-universe.md) — the fourteen modeled error\n codes and the legacy/extended split.\n- Handbook, [coercion and lifting](../model/02-coercion-and-lifting.md) — the propagation\n discipline and the inspection functions' exemption.\n\n\n", "version-differences": "The recorded environments below distinguish a reading from a same-input comparison. Counts describe captured inputs in each environment; overlapping captures and comparisons are not totals of unique worksheet calls.\n\n| Excel 16.0 build | Platform and CPU | Captured inputs |\n|---|---|---:|\n| 20430 | Windows, 64-bit, CPU not recorded | 1,227 |\n\nThe record contains no same-input comparison between these environments. Reading different inputs on different builds does not establish either a version change or cross-build agreement.\n\n[Recorded environments and comparison details](https://github.com/DnaCalc/ExcelFunctionsHandbook/blob/5dc75391aa5125ccc5abdb095da85950980d6fd8/content/evidence/environments/FUNC.ERROR.TYPE.json).", "what-it-does": "\n`ERROR.TYPE(error_val)` maps an error value to a number identifying its code, and returns `#N/A`\nfor anything that is not an error.\n\nMicrosoft's table, verbatim:\n\n| Error value | Number |\n|---|---|\n| `#NULL!` | 1 |\n| `#DIV/0!` | 2 |\n| `#VALUE!` | 3 |\n| `#REF!` | 4 |\n| `#NAME?` | 5 |\n| `#NUM!` | 6 |\n| `#N/A` | 7 |\n| `#GETTING_DATA` | 8 |\n| Anything else | `#N/A` |\n\nTwo features of this table are worth pausing on.\n\n**The last row is a deliberate confusion.** `ERROR.TYPE(5)` returns `#N/A`, and `ERROR.TYPE(#N/A)`\nreturns `7`. The function answers \"this is not an error\" by producing an error, which means the\nnaive test `ERROR.TYPE(x) > 0` cannot distinguish \"no error\" from \"the error is `#N/A`\". Guard\n`ERROR.TYPE` with `ISERROR` or `ISNA` before trusting its result — Microsoft's own description\nrecommends exactly that pattern: \"You can use ERROR.TYPE in an IF function to test for an error\nvalue and return a text string, such as a message, instead of the error value.\"\n\n**`#GETTING_DATA` has a code but no `ISERROR` sentence.** Microsoft's `ISERROR` row enumerates\nseven codes and stops at `#N/A`; this table adds an eighth. The two documentation pages were\nwritten at different times and the Handbook does not know which is currently true of the running\nproduct for that code.\n\n\n\n### Arguments\n\n\n`error_val` — required, exactly one. The published signature is `ERROR.TYPE(error_val)`.\n\nMicrosoft's argument description: \"The error value whose identifying number you want to find.\nAlthough error_val can be the actual error value, it will usually be a reference to a cell\ncontaining a formula that you want to test.\"\n\nThat sentence describes the normal use. `ERROR.TYPE(A1)` where `A1` holds a broken formula is\nhow the function is meant to be called; `ERROR.TYPE(#DIV/0!)` with a literal error is legal and\nmostly appears in tests.\n\n" }, "signature": { "display": "ERROR.TYPE(error_val)", "parameters": [ { "description": null, "name": "error_val", "optional": false, "repeats": false } ], "trailing_repeats": false }, "sources": { "metadata": { "admission": { "label": "implemented", "reason": null }, "arity": { "max": 1, "min": 1 }, "category": "Information functions", "classification": { "arg_preparation_profile": "ValuesOnlyPreAdapter", "coercion_lift_profile": "Custom", "determinism_class": "Deterministic", "error_collapse_profile": "None", "fec_dependency_profile": "None", "host_interaction_class": "None", "kernel_signature_class": "Custom", "rich_value_usage": "RichBlind", "surface_fec_dependency_profile": "RefOnly", "thread_safety_class": "SafePure", "volatility_class": "NonVolatile" }, "descriptions": { "long": null, "short": "Number identifying which error value a cell holds", "short_source": "dna-calc-own" }, "docs": { "english_description": "Returns a number corresponding to an error type", "microsoft_url": "https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/error-type-function-10958677-7c8d-44f7-ae77-b9a9ee6eefaa" }, "entry_kind": "built_in_function", "localized_family_names": null, "localized_names": [ { "locale": "ar-SA", "name": "ERROR.TYPE" }, { "locale": "bg-BG", "name": "ERROR.TYPE" }, { "locale": "cs-CZ", "name": "CHYBA.TYP" }, { "locale": "da-DK", "name": "FEJLTYPE" }, { "locale": "de-DE", "name": "ERROR.TYPE" }, { "locale": "el-GR", "name": "ERROR.TYPE" }, { "locale": "en-AU", "name": "ERROR.TYPE" }, { "locale": "en-GB", "name": "ERROR.TYPE" }, { "locale": "en-US", "name": "ERROR.TYPE" }, { "locale": "es-ES", "name": "TIPO.DE.ERROR" }, { "locale": "et-EE", "name": "ERROR.TYPE" }, { "locale": "fi-FI", "name": "VIRHEEN.LAJI" }, { "locale": "fr-FR", "name": "TYPE.ERREUR*" }, { "locale": "he-IL", "name": "ERROR.TYPE" }, { "locale": "hr-HR", "name": "ERROR.TYPE" }, { "locale": "hu-HU", "name": "HIBA.TÍPUS" }, { "locale": "id-ID", "name": "ERROR.TYPE" }, { "locale": "it-IT", "name": "ERROR.TYPE" }, { "locale": "ja-JP", "name": "ERROR.TYPE" }, { "locale": "ko-KR", "name": "ERROR.TYPE" }, { "locale": "lt-LT", "name": "ERROR.TYPE" }, { "locale": "lv-LV", "name": "ERROR.TYPE" }, { "locale": "nb-NO", "name": "FEILTYPE" }, { "locale": "nl-NL", "name": "TYPE.FOUT" }, { "locale": "pl-PL", "name": "NR.BŁĘDU" }, { "locale": "pt-BR", "name": "ERROR.TYPE" }, { "locale": "pt-PT", "name": "TIPO.ERRO" }, { "locale": "ro-RO", "name": "ERROR.TYPE" }, { "locale": "ru-RU", "name": "ТИП.ОШИБКИ" }, { "locale": "sk-SK", "name": "ERROR.TYPE" }, { "locale": "sl-SI", "name": "ERROR.TYPE" }, { "locale": "sr-Latn-RS", "name": "ERROR.TYPE" }, { "locale": "sv-SE", "name": "FEL.TYP" }, { "locale": "th-TH", "name": "ERROR.TYPE" }, { "locale": "tr-TR", "name": "HATA.TİPİ sonucu" }, { "locale": "uk-UA", "name": "ERROR.TYPE" }, { "locale": "vi-VN", "name": "ERROR.TYPE" }, { "locale": "zh-CN", "name": "ERROR.TYPE" }, { "locale": "zh-HK", "name": "ERROR.TYPE" }, { "locale": "zh-TW", "name": "ERROR.TYPE" } ], "signature": { "display": "ERROR.TYPE(error_val)", "parameters": [ { "description": null, "name": "error_val", "optional": false, "repeats": false } ], "trailing_repeats": false }, "surface_name": "ERROR.TYPE", "version_marker": null, "xlcall": null }, "microsoft": "https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/error-type-function-10958677-7c8d-44f7-ae77-b9a9ee6eefaa" }, "try_it": { "formula": "=ERROR.TYPE(NA())" }, "url": "https://handbook.dnacalc.com/functions/ERROR.TYPE.html", "variants": [], "versions": [ { "behaviour": "=ERROR.TYPE(B1) returned 0 (0x0000000000000000). Inputs were supplied through cells using Value2. These are controls from this environment, not a same-input comparison with another build.", "excel_build": "16.0.20527.20088", "observations": [ { "call": "=ERROR.TYPE(B1)", "excel": { "bits": "0x0000000000000000", "display": "0", "kind": "number" }, "input_route": "cell-value2", "inputs": [ { "name": "B1", "value": { "bits": null, "display": "#BUSY!", "kind": "error" } } ], "recorded_in": "Excel 16.0.20527.20088 Current Channel, Windows 64-bit (NT 10.0.26200), x86-64, AMD Ryzen 7 4800H, en-ZA" } ], "platform": "Windows 64-bit (NT 10.0.26200), x86-64, AMD Ryzen 7 4800H, en-ZA", "sources": [ "https://github.com/DnaCalc/ExcelFunctionsHandbook/blob/3345a87/content/notes/FN-ERROR.TYPE-001.json" ] }, { "behaviour": "1,227 captured inputs are indexed for this environment. Capture dates: 2026-09-29 to 2026-09-29. This is a reading count, not a comparison with another build.", "excel_build": "16.0 build 20430", "platform": "Windows, 64-bit, CPU not recorded", "sources": [ "https://github.com/DnaCalc/ExcelFunctionsHandbook/blob/5dc75391aa5125ccc5abdb095da85950980d6fd8/content/evidence/environments/FUNC.ERROR.TYPE.json" ] } ] }