If B is really "nonexistent" then you wouldn't get #N/A.

AFAIK, the only way the + operator returns #N/A is if one of the
arguments has a value of #N/A.

So what's really going on?

If you're using a lookup, you can substitute something like:

=IF(ISNA(VLOOKUP(...)),0,VLOOKUP(...))

If you don't want a zero to appear, either custom format it:

Format/Cells/Number/Custom General;General;;@

or, if zero is a valid value, use


=IF(ISNA(VLOOKUP(...)),"",VLOOKUP(...))

and change your summary formula to

=SUM(A1:C1,-D1)

since SUM() ignores text, but the + operator throws a #VALUE! error.



In article ,
mkerstei
wrote:

I have a set equation that needs to be run on about a thousand different
entries. A simplified version of the equation would be =A+B+C-D. The
only problem is, "B" is only found in some of the entries. So for the
majority of the times the equation is run for the different entries, it
works, but when "B" is nonexistent, the equation returns a #N/A value.
Is there anyway I can keep the set equation but make it work when B
does not exist?