Feature: Improved error handling

Our upcoming release significantly improves error handling. Instead of failing silently, Calcapp now displays helpful error codes and messages, plus new functions for working with errors.

Our upcoming release significantly improves error handling. (Examples of when errors occur include when a number is divided by zero and when the wrong value is passed as a function parameter.) The current Calcapp release handles errors by failing silently, displaying nothing. That isn’t very helpful when you’re struggling to get a formula to work correctly.

If you’re used to spreadsheets, you’ll find Calcapp’s error handling familiar. Here’s what happens if you divide a number by zero:

Error reporting

A short error code is displayed instead of the value if there is an error. If you hover over the field with your mouse, a more descriptive error message is displayed in a tooltip (pinpointing the offending operator or function).

Calcapp now supports a number of functions which enable you to work with errors. You can use ERROR.TYPE to get more information on an error, ISERROR to determine whether a value is an error and IFERROR to return a certain value if a value is an error and another value otherwise.

Sometimes, it is perfectly acceptable for a formula to yield an error when evaluated. You can use IFERROR to display nothing if a value evaluates to an error. The formula in the screenshot above could be changed to IFERROR(Dividend / Divisor, BLANK()) to ensure that a potential error is not seen by the user.

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