How to Check for Non-Text with ISNONTEXT in Excel

ISNONTEXT is TRUE for anything that isn’t text — including blank cells — so it catches missing free-text answers.

You will learn to

• Flag a required text field that is blank or numeric
• Show the reason or a warning
• Total the money tied up in records without a reason

How it works

ISNONTEXT(value) is the opposite of ISTEXT: it returns TRUE for numbers, dates, TRUE/FALSE, errors and — importantly — empty cells. That makes it a one-step check for required text fields, where both a blank and an accidental number mean the answer is missing.

Use it with IF for a warning, =IF(ISNONTEXT(B4),"Reason missing",B4), or multiply it by a value column inside SUMPRODUCT to total the money tied up in incomplete records: =SUMPRODUCT(ISNONTEXT(B2:B8)*C2:C8).

=IF(ISNONTEXT(B4),"Reason missing",B4)