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Formula Explainer
Free Excel formula explainer - paste any formula and read it in plain English, step by step in the order Excel calculates it, with warnings for risky patterns.
In plain English
Returns the result of step 2, but if that gives any error, shows "Not listed" instead.
Step by step, in the order Excel works it out
- 1
MATCH(A2, Prices!A:A, 0)Finds the position of cell A2 in the range Prices!A:A, using an exact match.
- 2
INDEX(Prices!C:C, MATCH(A2, Prices!A:A, 0))Returns the value from the range Prices!C:C at the row position given by the result of step 1.
- 3
IFERROR(INDEX(Prices!C:C, MATCH(A2, Prices!A:A, 0)), "Not listed")Returns the result of step 2, but if that gives any error, shows "Not listed" instead.
Worth knowing
It uses whole columns (like A:A). That's convenient but makes Excel check a million rows; a Table or a fixed range is faster.
IFERROR hides every error, including real mistakes like a deleted column. IFNA hides only 'not found', which is usually what you mean.
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Formulas nobody understands
A workbook full of these?
I rewrite fragile formulas into readable ones - LET, XLOOKUP, labelled inputs - and document what each one does. See the formula fixing service.
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