ISFORMULA Function in Excel: Explained

In this article, you will learn how to use the ISFORMULA formula in Excel.

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What does the ISFORMULA formula do in Excel?

The "ISFORMULA" function in Excel is a logical function that tests whether a cell contains a formula or not. It returns TRUE if the specified cell contains a formula, and returns FALSE if the cell contains a value, a text string, or is empty.

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Note that the ISFORMULA function is a logical function, which means that it returns either TRUE or FALSE. You can use the result of the ISFORMULA function in other formulas or functions to perform calculations or apply formatting to specific cells in your worksheet.

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How to use the ISFORMULA function in Excel?

The syntax of the ISFORMULA formula in Excel is as follows:

=ISFORMULA(reference)

where "reference" is the cell or range of cells you want to test.

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Sample use case for the ISFORMULA formula in Excel

Suppose you have a large spreadsheet with complex formulas, and you want to quickly identify which cells contain formulas and which cells contain only values. You can use the ISFORMULA function to do this.

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Here's an example of how you can use the ISFORMULA function:

1. Open your spreadsheet and enter the information as follow - column B contains the purchase date of the asset, column C contains the cost of the asset, column D contains the useful life in years (Ideally calculated as a formula), and column E contains the salvage value (i.e., the estimated value of the asset at the end of its useful life).
2. Create a new column and use it to display the results of the ISFORMULA function. In the first cell of the new column, enter the following formula: =IF(ISFORMULA(D2), "Formula", "Value")
3. If column D contains a formula (i.e., the useful life is calculated based on the purchase date), the IF function returns “Formula” and If column D does not contain a formula (i.e., the useful life is a fixed number of years), the formula returns “Value”.

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In this formula, D2 is the cell that you want to check for a formula. The ISFORMULA function checks whether the cell contains a formula, and if it does, the IF formula returns the text "Formula". If the cell does not contain a formula, it returns the text "Value".

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By using the ISFORMULA function in this way, you can quickly identify which cells in your spreadsheet contain formulas and which cells contain values. This can be useful for checking the accuracy of your inputs and making sure that your spreadsheet is working correctly.

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