Summary

The Excel ISFORMULA function returns TRUE if a cell contains a formula, and FALSE if not. When a cell contains a formula ISFORMULA will return TRUE regardless of the formula's output or error conditions.

Purpose 

Test if cell contains a formula

Return value 

TRUE or FALSE

Syntax

=ISFORMULA(reference)
  • reference - Reference to cell or cell range.

How to use 

The ISFORMULA function returns TRUE if a cell contains a formula, and FALSE if not. When a cell contains a formula ISFORMULA will return TRUE regardless of the formula's output or error conditions. The ISFORMULA takes one argument, reference, which must be a cell reference.

Examples

If cell A1 contains the formula =2+2, the ISFORMULA function returns TRUE:

=ISFORMULA(A1) // returns TRUE

If cell A1 contains the text "apple", the ISFORMULA function returns FALSE:

=ISFORMULA(A1) // returns FALSE

Count formulas

To count cells in a range that contain formulas, you can use the SUMPRODUCT function like this:

=SUMPRODUCT(--ISFORMULA(range))

The double negative coerces the TRUE and FALSE results from ISFORMULA into 1s and 0s and SUMPRODUCT returns the sum.

Notes

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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.