The ISNUMBER function is an information function which will return either TRUE or FALSE if the selected cell or values result in a valid numeric value. Numbers include properly formatted dates as they are systematically evaluated as numbers. Numbers stored as text will result in an output of FALSE.

This is the format of the ISNUMBER function:

=ISNUMBER(REFERENCE OR FORMULA)

Here is an example of the ISNUMBER function:

=ISNUMBER(“John”) = FALSE

This function is valuable when multiple response types are expected within a field, and they can vary between numeric and non-numeric types. Applying this logic allows for error handling before the errors even occur.

An example of a functional implementation of this would be if you have a form whose responses are a sliding scale of 1-10, or allowing the individual to enter their own response. The sliding scale would be considered non-text, while a custom response would be considered as text. ISNUMBER will allow us to create personalized responses based on these results.

=IF(ISNUMBER(C3), “Thank you for your response”, “Please note that processing times can increase with custom requests”)