{
  "category": "Information functions",
  "display_name": "NA",
  "entry_kind": "built_in_function",
  "eval_api": {
    "method": "POST",
    "url": "https://handbook.dnacalc.com/api/eval"
  },
  "function_id": "FUNC.NA",
  "implementation_state": {
    "answer_bank": {
      "excel_builds": [
        "20430"
      ],
      "larger_numeric": 0,
      "last_bit": 0,
      "matched": 1,
      "other_mismatch": 0,
      "refused": 0,
      "rows": 1,
      "unread": 0,
      "worst_ulp": 0
    },
    "detail": "Recorded: 1 in the answer bank and 3 workbook cells.",
    "dnacalc_commit": "9e1884369a678158dd82d3d74188daf986995e87",
    "in_catalogue": true,
    "state": "matches",
    "state_label": "Matches every recorded Excel answer",
    "summary": "Matches all 4 recorded answers",
    "workbook_corpus": {
      "cells": 3,
      "matched": 3
    }
  },
  "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#L106-L114",
        "https://github.com/DnaCalc/DnaCalc/blob/9e1884369a678158dd82d3d74188daf986995e87/crates/calc-func/src/catalogue/information.rs#L445-L448"
      ],
      "repository": "https://github.com/DnaCalc/DnaCalc",
      "shared_code": [],
      "source": "https://github.com/DnaCalc/DnaCalc/blob/9e1884369a678158dd82d3d74188daf986995e87/crates/calc-func/src/catalogue/information.rs#L106-L114",
      "state": "matches",
      "suite": null,
      "summary": "Matches all 4 recorded answers"
    }
  ],
  "json_url": "https://handbook.dnacalc.com/api/functions/FUNC.NA.json",
  "name": "NA",
  "notes": [],
  "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- **`ISNA`** is the predicate that tests for exactly what `NA()` produces. `ISNA(NA())` is\n  `TRUE`, and it is the one-line smoke test for both functions.\n- **`IFNA(value, value_if_na)`** is the modern branch on this value, and `IFERROR` is the broader\n  one that also catches everything else. If a workbook deliberately writes `NA()` to mark missing\n  data, wrapping downstream formulas in `IFERROR` destroys the signal; `IFNA` is not the culprit\n  because it at least catches only the intended value, but the same caution applies.\n- **`ISERR`** deliberately excludes `#N/A`, which is the complement of what `NA()` does: `NA()`\n  makes the value that `ISERR` is defined to ignore.\n- **`ERROR.TYPE(NA())`** is `7`.\n- **`NA()` versus a blank cell** is a modelling choice. A blank is skipped by aggregates and\n  treated as zero in scalar arithmetic; `NA()` stops the aggregate. If a total must not be\n  published from incomplete inputs, `NA()` is the mechanism.\n- **`XLOOKUP`'s `if_not_found`** and **`VLOOKUP`'s natural `#N/A`** are the functions that\n  produce this value without being asked; `NA()` is how you produce it on purpose.\n\n\n",
    "how-to-implement": "\n### Notes for implementers\n\n1. **`NA()` is a constant kernel, so it needs no evaluation context**, no resolver and no host.\n   An engine that routes it through a general dispatch path with argument preparation is doing\n   work that cannot affect the answer.\n2. **Arity zero, exactly.** Minimum and maximum are both 0. A function whose declared arity is\n   \"at most zero\" and whose battery cannot express \"no arguments\" will produce a confusing row;\n   this is a known shape wrinkle in mechanical probing, not a behaviour.\n4. **`NA()` must not be optimised into a blank or a zero** by any constant-folding pass; the\n   error value is the result.\n\n\n",
    "quirks": "\n### Result and edge cases\n\n\nReturns the `Error` value `#N/A`, always, on every call.\n\n- **It is a value, not an exception.** `#N/A` flows through arithmetic and function calls like\n  any other scalar ([the value universe](../model/01-value-universe.md)); nothing is thrown and\n  nothing is caught.\n- **Deterministic and non-volatile.** `NA()` does not force recalculation and does not depend on\n  the calling cell — unlike `CELL` or `INFO`, the other members of the Information category that\n  take little or no input.\n- **In array formulas** it is a scalar and broadcasts like any constant.\n- **Typing `#N/A` directly into a cell** is a recognised way to enter the same value in Excel's\n  user interface; `NA()` is the formula form. Whether the two produce values that are equal in\n  every respect has not been checked here, though the value model offers no way for them to\n  differ.\n\n\n\n### Errors\n\n\n`NA()` *returns* an error by design; it does not *fail*.\n\nNote the distinction the Handbook keeps: `#N/A` as the *result* of `NA()` is success. `#VALUE!`\nfrom `NA(1)` is failure. Two error values, two entirely different meanings, in the same\nfunction's row.\n\n\n",
    "sources": "- Handbook, [coercion and lifting](../model/02-coercion-and-lifting.md) — error propagation as\n  engine law, which is what makes `NA()` useful.\n\n\n*The quoted one-line description is Microsoft's text, from its support article <https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/na-function-5469c2d1-a90c-4fb5-9bbc-64bd9bb6b47c>.*\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 |\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.NA.json).",
    "what-it-does": "\n`NA()` returns the error value `#N/A`. That is the entire specification.\n\nThe reason it exists is that `#N/A` in Excel does not mean \"something went wrong\". It means\n*value not available* — a first-class statement about data. Writing `NA()` into a cell is a\ndeliberate assertion that the number belongs there but is not known, and it has two concrete\nconsequences that a blank or a zero does not:\n\n1. **It propagates.** Any formula that consumes the cell inherits `#N/A`, so a total computed\n   from incomplete data announces its incompleteness instead of quietly under-reporting.\n2. **Charts skip it.** A data point of `#N/A` is omitted from a line rather than plotted at zero,\n   which is the difference between a gap in a series and a spike to the axis.\n\nZero lies, blank is ambiguous, `NA()` is honest. That is the design.\n\n\n\n### Arguments\n\n\nNone. The signature is `NA()`, arity exactly zero.\n\nThe empty parentheses are required — the name `NA` on its own is a defined-name reference, not a\nfunction call, and will produce `#NAME?` if no such name exists. This is the same rule that\napplies to `TRUE()`, `TODAY()` and `RAND()`, but `NA` is the one people most often type without\nparentheses, because `#N/A` is what they are thinking of and it has no parentheses in it.\n\nSupplying an argument is an arity failure; see \"Errors\".\n\n\n"
  },
  "signature": {
    "display": "NA()",
    "parameters": [],
    "trailing_repeats": false
  },
  "sources": {
    "metadata": {
      "admission": {
        "label": "implemented",
        "reason": null
      },
      "arity": {
        "max": 0,
        "min": 0
      },
      "category": "Information functions",
      "classification": {
        "arg_preparation_profile": "ValuesOnlyPreAdapter",
        "coercion_lift_profile": "None",
        "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": "None",
        "thread_safety_class": "SafePure",
        "volatility_class": "NonVolatile"
      },
      "descriptions": {
        "long": null,
        "short": "The error value #N/A",
        "short_source": "dna-calc-own"
      },
      "docs": {
        "english_description": "Returns the error value #N/A",
        "microsoft_url": "https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/na-function-5469c2d1-a90c-4fb5-9bbc-64bd9bb6b47c"
      },
      "entry_kind": "built_in_function",
      "localized_family_names": null,
      "localized_names": [
        {
          "locale": "ar-SA",
          "name": "غير متوفر"
        },
        {
          "locale": "bg-BG",
          "name": "NA"
        },
        {
          "locale": "cs-CZ",
          "name": "Není k dispozici"
        },
        {
          "locale": "da-DK",
          "name": "I/T"
        },
        {
          "locale": "de-DE",
          "name": "NV"
        },
        {
          "locale": "el-GR",
          "name": "Δ/Υ"
        },
        {
          "locale": "en-AU",
          "name": "NA"
        },
        {
          "locale": "en-GB",
          "name": "NA"
        },
        {
          "locale": "en-US",
          "name": "NA"
        },
        {
          "locale": "es-ES",
          "name": "N/D"
        },
        {
          "locale": "et-EE",
          "name": "Pole saadaval"
        },
        {
          "locale": "fi-FI",
          "name": "–"
        },
        {
          "locale": "fr-FR",
          "name": "NA"
        },
        {
          "locale": "he-IL",
          "name": "לא זמין"
        },
        {
          "locale": "hr-HR",
          "name": "ND"
        },
        {
          "locale": "hu-HU",
          "name": "–"
        },
        {
          "locale": "id-ID",
          "name": "NA"
        },
        {
          "locale": "it-IT",
          "name": "N/D"
        },
        {
          "locale": "ja-JP",
          "name": "該当なし"
        },
        {
          "locale": "ko-KR",
          "name": "NA"
        },
        {
          "locale": "lt-LT",
          "name": "NA"
        },
        {
          "locale": "lv-LV",
          "name": "N/P"
        },
        {
          "locale": "nb-NO",
          "name": "IT"
        },
        {
          "locale": "nl-NL",
          "name": "N.v.t."
        },
        {
          "locale": "pl-PL",
          "name": "ND"
        },
        {
          "locale": "pt-BR",
          "name": "N/D"
        },
        {
          "locale": "pt-PT",
          "name": "ND"
        },
        {
          "locale": "ro-RO",
          "name": "Indisponibil"
        },
        {
          "locale": "ru-RU",
          "name": "Н/Д"
        },
        {
          "locale": "sk-SK",
          "name": "Nevzťahuje sa"
        },
        {
          "locale": "sl-SI",
          "name": "Ni na voljo"
        },
        {
          "locale": "sr-Latn-RS",
          "name": "Nije dostupno"
        },
        {
          "locale": "sv-SE",
          "name": "NA"
        },
        {
          "locale": "th-TH",
          "name": "NA"
        },
        {
          "locale": "tr-TR",
          "name": "Yok"
        },
        {
          "locale": "uk-UA",
          "name": "–"
        },
        {
          "locale": "vi-VN",
          "name": "Không áp dụng"
        },
        {
          "locale": "zh-CN",
          "name": "NA"
        },
        {
          "locale": "zh-HK",
          "name": "NA"
        },
        {
          "locale": "zh-TW",
          "name": "NA"
        }
      ],
      "signature": {
        "display": "NA()",
        "parameters": [],
        "trailing_repeats": false
      },
      "surface_name": "NA",
      "version_marker": null,
      "xlcall": {
        "code": "10",
        "symbol": "xlfNa"
      }
    },
    "microsoft": "https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/na-function-5469c2d1-a90c-4fb5-9bbc-64bd9bb6b47c"
  },
  "try_it": {
    "formula": "=NA()",
    "note": "NA deliberately returns the #N/A worksheet error.",
    "preview_status": "worksheet-error"
  },
  "url": "https://handbook.dnacalc.com/functions/NA.html",
  "variants": [],
  "versions": [
    {
      "behaviour": "1 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.NA.json"
      ]
    }
  ]
}