ISFORMULA Function Examples – Excel & Google Sheets
Download the example workbook
This tutorial demonstrates how to use the Excel ISFORMULA Function in Excel to test if a cell contains a formula.
ISFORMULA Function Overview
The ISFORMULA Function Test if cell is a formula. Returns TRUE or FALSE.
To use the ISFORMULA Excel Worksheet Function, select a cell and type:
(Notice how the formula inputs appear)
ISFORMULA Function Syntax and Inputs:
=ISFORMULA(reference)Cell Reference – The cell reference to the cell that you wish to test.
How to use the ISFORMULA Function
The ISFORMULA Function tests if a cell contains a formula. If the cell contains a formula it returns TRUE, otherwise it returns FALSE.
=ISFORMULA(A2)
If Is Formula
Usually, after performing a logical test, you will want to do something based on the result of that test. The IF Function can be used to perform different actions if a statement is evaluated as TRUE or FALSE. Let’s use it with the ISFORMULA Function.
=IF(ISFORMULA(A2),"formula", "not formula")
FORMULATEXT Function
The FORMULATEXT Function converts a cell formula to text. However, if the cell does not contain a formula, FORMULATEXT will throw an error. This is a great opportunity to use the ISFORMULA Function.
=IF(ISFORMULA(A2),"formula", "not formula")
In this example, we use the ISFORMULA Function to test if a cell contain a formula. If so, it will output the formula as text with the FORMULATEXT Function. If not, it will output the cell value.
If Is Not Formula
The NOT Function inverts logical results. It changes TRUE to FALSE and FALSE to TRUE. Here we can use NOT, alongside the ISFORMULA and IF Functions.
=IF(NOT(ISFORMULA(A2)),"not formula", "formula")
Other Logical Functions
Excel / Google Sheets contain many other logical functions to perform other logical tests. Here is a list:
| IF / IS Functions |
|---|
| iferror |
| iserror |
| isna |
| iserr |
| isblank |
| isnumber |
| istext |
| isnontext |
| isformula |
| islogical |
| isref |
| iseven |
| isodd |
ISFORMULA in Google Sheets
The ISFORMULA Function works exactly the same in Google Sheets as in Excel:
