Excel Formula Omits Adjacent Cells Error

The Excel formula omits adjacent cell errors that can occur with mathematical or statistical functions, such as SUM, AVERAGE, COUNT, MIN, and MAX.

This error appears when there are cells with similar values to the one you chose that are not selected. Excel recognizes it as an error and symbolizes it with a little triangle.

I will illustrate it using the following example.

In cells A7, B7, and C7 you have the SUM function, summing cells in each column. Notice, that in the B and C columns, not all similar values are selected. In the A column, you also don’t have all cells selected (A1). But this is not the number type, so Excel understands it.

How to get rid of this error?

There are a few ways to make this error disappear.

  1. Change formulas to have B5 and C2 cells included.
  2. Remove values from cells B5 and C2.
  3. Click the ignore error option. You have to do it for each formula.

Getting rid of this error permanently

So far this error will appear until we tweak or work or click each example to ignore this error. But if you want to do this permanently and you don’t want Excel to inform you about this type of error, you can change it inside the options.

To do it, go to File >> Options >> Formulas.

On the right side, under Error checking rules uncheck the field called Formulas which omit cells in a region.

After you make this change, Excel will stop irritating you with this error message.

Tomasz Decker is an Excel specialist, skilled in data analysis and financial modeling.