Calc Guide

Appendix B
Error CodesCopyrightThis document is Copyright © 2020 by the LibreOffice Documentation Team. Contributors arelisted below. You may distribute it and/or modify it under the terms of either the GNU General
Public License (http://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html), version 3 or later, or the Creative
Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), version 4.0 or later.
All trademarks within this guide belong to their legitimate owners.

Contributors
This chapter is adapted and updated from the LibreOffice 6.4 Calc Guide.

To this edition
Steve Fanning

Felipe Viggiano

To previous editions
Barbara Duprey
Kees Kriek

Jean Hollis Weber
Steve Fanning

Claire Wood
Gordon Bates

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mailing list: documentation@global.libreoffice.org.

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Publication date and software version
Published November 2020. Based on LibreOffice 7.0.

Documentation for LibreOffice is available at http://documentation.libreoffice.org/en/ContentsCopyright............................................................................................................................2Contributors.............................................................................................................................. 2To this edition....................................................................................................................... 2To previous editions..............................................................................................................2Feedback.................................................................................................................................. 2Publication date and software version.......................................................................................2

Introduction to Calc error codes......................................................................................4
Error codes displayed within cells..................................................................................5
General error codes..........................................................................................................6Appendix C Calc Error Codes | 3

Introduction to Calc error codes
Calc provides feedback for errors of miscalculation, incorrect use of functions, invalid cellreferences and values, and other user initiated mistakes. The feedback may be displayed within
the cell that contains the error (Figure 1), or on the Status bar (Figure 2), or in both, dependingon the type of error. Generally speaking, if the error occurs in the cell that is selected (or containsthe cursor), the error message is displayed on the Status bar.
As an example, Figure 1 shows the error code returned when a column is too narrow to display
the entire formatted date. The date displayed within the input line, 04/05/1998, would fit within thecell without a problem, but the format used by the cell produces the date value Sunday, April 05,1998.

Figure 1: Error codes displayed within cells
When the cell displaying the #REF! error code in Figure 1 is selected, the Status bar displays theerror message as shown in Figure 2. This message is more descriptive than the message
displayed in the cell, but it still may not provide enough information to correctly diagnose theproblem. For fuller explanations, consult the following tables and the Help topic, Error Codes inLibreOffice Calc.

Figure 2: An error message displayed in the Status bar
This appendix presents error codes in two tables.
1) Table 1 lists error strings which are displayed within the cell that actually contains theerror. Except in the case of the ### error, they all correspond to a Calc error code
number. Alphanumeric codes such as Err502 and Err511 can also appear in cells; these
are not separately identified in the Table 1 but their meanings are given in Table 2.
2) Table 2 explains all of the error codes, listed by code number, including those error codesin the first table.

Tip
You can use the ERRORTYPE() function to find the code number for an error
occurring in a different cell. Refer to the Help system for more detail about thisfunction.

4 | Appendix C Calc Error Codes

Error codes displayed within cells
Table 1: Error codes in cells
CodeMessage

Explanation of the error

N/A###The column is too narrow to display the complete formatted
contents of the cell. This is not really an error value, so there is nocorresponding numerical error code. The solutions to this problem
are to increase the width of the column, or select Format > Cells> Alignment and click either Wrap text automatically or Shrink tofit cell size in the Properties area to make the text match thecurrent column width.

503

#NUM!

A calculation resulted in an overflow of the defined value range.

519#VALUE!

The formula within the cell returns a value that does notcorrespond to the definition of the formula or functions used. Thiserror could also mean that the cell referenced by the formulacontains text instead of a number.

524

#REF!

The formula within the cell uses a reference that does not exist.
Either a column or row description name could not be resolved, orthe column, row, or sheet that contains a referenced cell ismissing.

525#NAME?

An identifier could not be evaluated: no valid reference, no valid
domain name, no column/row label, no macro, incorrect decimal
divider, add-in not found. For example, entering in a cell=sum(bob*5) where there is no cell named “bob” or containing
the text “bob” generates this error.

532#DIV/0!

Division operator / if the denominator is 0.
Some more functions return this error; see next table for details.

General error codes
The following table is an overview of the most common error messages for LibreOffice Calc.

NoteErrors described as Internal errors should not be encountered by users under normalconditions. Errors listed as Not used are not currently assigned to any error condition
and will not occur.
Table 2: List of error codes
CodeMessage
501

Invalid character

Explanation of the error
Character in a formula is not valid. This error is the sameas the Invalid Name error (525) except that it occurs withina formula. The cell containing the error will display the#NAME? error reference.

General error codes | 5

CodeMessage

Explanation of the error

502

Invalid argument

Function argument is not valid; for example, a negative
number for the SQRT() function. This error also occurs if
more than one matching cell is found by the DGET()
function.

503

Invalid floating point
operation (celldisplays #NUM!)

Division by 0, or another calculation that results in anoverflow of the defined value range (a value too big or toosmall).

504

Parameter list error

Function parameter is not valid; for example, text instead ofa number, or a domain reference instead of a cellreference.

505

Internal syntax error

Not used.

506

Invalid semicolon

Not used.

507

Pair missing

Not used.

508

Pair missing

Missing bracket or parenthesis; for example, closing
brackets but no opening brackets.

509

Missing operator

Operator is missing; for example,"=2(3+4)* ", where the operator between "2" and "(" ismissing.

510

Missing variable

Variable is missing; for example, when two operators aretogether "=1+*2".

511

Missing variable

Function requires more variables than are provided; forexample, AND() and OR().

512

Formula overflow

The total number of internal tokens (that is, operators,variables, brackets) in the formula exceeds 8192, or the
total number of matrices the formula creates exceeds 150.
This includes basic functions that receive too large an arrayas a parameter.

513

String overflow

An identifier in the formula exceeds 64 KB in size, or a
result of a string operation exceeds 64 KB in size.

514

Internal overflow

Sort operation attempted on too much numerical data (max.
100000) or a calculation stack overflow.

515

Internal syntax error

Not used.

516

Internal syntax error

Matrix is expected on the calculation stack, but is notavailable.

517

Internal syntax error

Unknown error; for example, a document with a newer
function is loaded in an older version of Calc that does notcontain the function.

518

Internal syntax error

Variable is not available.

6 | Appendix C Calc Error CodesCodeMessage

Explanation of the error

519

No result (celldisplays #VALUE!)

Formula yields a value that does not correspond to thedefinition, or a cell that is referenced in the formula contains
text instead of a number.

520

Internal syntax error

Compiler creates an unknown compiler code.

521

Internal syntax error

No result.

522

Circular reference

Formula refers directly or indirectly to itself and theIterations option is not selected under Tools > Options >LibreOffice Calc > Calculate.

523

The calculation
procedure does notconverge

Financial statistics function missed a targeted value, oriterations of circular references do not reach the minimumchange within the maximum steps that are set.

524

Invalid references(cell displays #REF!)

A column or row description name could not be resolved, orthe column, row, or sheet that contains a referenced cell is
missing.

525

Invalid names (celldisplays #NAME?)

An identifier could not be evaluated; for example, no valid
reference, no valid domain name, no column/row label, nomacro, incorrect decimal divider, add-in not found.

526Internal syntax error

Obsolete, no longer used, but could come from olddocuments if the result is a formula from a domain.

527

Internal overflow

References, such as when a cell references a cell, are too
encapsulated or deeply nested. This is an internal error andshould not be displayed in LibreOffice.

528 to531—Not used.

532

Division by zero (celldisplays #DIV/0!)

Division operator / if the denominator is 0.
Some more functions return this error; for example:
VARP with less than 1 argument
STDEVP with less than 1 argument
VAR with less than 2 arguments
STDEV with less than 2 arguments
STANDARDIZE with stdev=0NORMDIST with stdev=0533

Nested arrays are
not supported

For example, “={1;{2}}”538

Error: Array or matrix
size-539

Unsupported inline
array content

For example, “={1+2}”

540

External content
disabled

Occurs when a function that requires (re)loading of externalsources is encountered and the user hasn't confirmed
reloading of external sources yet.

General error codes | 7