returns the text “=IF(B5>=70,“Pass”,“Fail”)”.

Dealing with errors

The FORMULATEXT function will return the #N/A error when a cell does not contain a formula. To trap this error and display nothing when a cell does not contain a formula, you can use the IFERROR function like this: Alternately, you can use ISFORMULA and IF like this:

Checking for specific text

To check a formula for a specific text, you can use the ISNUMBER and SEARCH functions. In the formula below, we are checking a formula in A1 to see if it contains “apple”: The result is either TRUE or FALSE. See this page for a full explanation.

Dave Bruns

Hi - I’m Dave Bruns, and I run Exceljet with my wife, Lisa. Our goal is to help you work faster in Excel. We create short videos, and clear examples of formulas, functions, pivot tables, conditional formatting, and charts.