getting rid of #DIV/0!

[Steve 4454]

I am trying to help a teacher with her grade book and keeping it on Excel. I
was going to setup some columns that could be used for TESTS, several other
columns for QUIZZES, some for HOMEWORK, etc.

I was then going to set up some total columns near the student's name for
the TEST AVG, then the QUIZ AVG, etc. To the immediate right of the
student's name, I was going to set up a Quarter Average that would take the
various totals and give them a percent value. The TEST AVG might count for
50% of the Q1 grade while the HOMEWORK average might only be 15%, or
whatever she decides on.

I was hoping to set this all up so the teacher would not have to enter the
formulas, so I created the formulas in advance. But I am getting the error
message of #DIV/0!. When we enter some practice grades, the error message
finally disappears now that the cells are no longer empty, and the numbers
are coming out just the way they should, but the spreadsheet looks awful
with so many cells screaming out #DIV/0! when we begin.

I have looked in the help files and I know what the error message means. Is
there an easy way to get rid of it? I would like the cell to remain empty
if there have not been any numbers entered yet. Is this possible, esp for
those of us who are not power users!!!!


Thanks

 

[Freemini]

You can use the following:
=IF(ISERR(2),YourFormula,"")

in the cell containing the formula (and the error message)

This will check for #DIV/0 and leave the cell blank, otherwise it will
calculate the formula.

Hope this helps

Mike

 

[Gord Dibben]

Steve

Best to set up your formulas so they don't error out on you if you can.

e.g. =IF(A1=0,"",B4/A1) prevents the error. Note: a blank cell equates to 0
in this case.

The alternative is to trap the error, but errors are a sign that something is
wrong and should be attended to, not masked.

e.g. =IF(ISERROR(B4/A1),"",B4/A1)

Gord Dibben XL2002

 

[Steve 4454]

Thanks for both responses. I will try them out!!