Excel Formula Explainer
Paste a formula — however deeply nested — and see each function broken out with a plain-English explanation of every argument.
Formula
Breakdown
VLOOKUP(A2, Sheet2!A:D, 3, FALSE)
Looks up a value in the first column of a range and returns a value from another column in the same row.
- A2 — value to look up
- Sheet2!A:D — table range to search
- 3 — column number to return
- FALSE — TRUE for approximate match, FALSE for exact match
IFERROR(VLOOKUP(A2, Sheet2!A:D, 3, FALSE), "Not found")
Returns a fallback value if the first argument evaluates to an error; otherwise returns the first argument's result.
- VLOOKUP(A2, Sheet2!A:D, 3, FALSE) — formula to evaluate
- "Not found" — value to show if it errors
How it works
Nested formulas like IFERROR(VLOOKUP(...), "Not found") can be hard to read at a glance. This tool parses the formula into its individual function calls, innermost first, and explains what each function does and what each of its arguments represents.
Function coverage includes common lookup, conditional, text, math, and date functions. Unrecognized functions are still listed with their arguments so you can see the structure, even without a description. Want to go the other way and build a formula from scratch? Try the Excel Formula Generator.
Examples
Nested lookup with error handling
Two functions, explained separately.
=IFERROR(VLOOKUP(A2, Sheet2!A:D, 3, FALSE), "Not found")
Conditional sum
Breaks down each condition argument.
=SUMIFS(C:C, A:A, "West", B:B, ">100")
Simple conditional
A basic IF statement.
=IF(A2>100, "High", "Low")