Why Isn't My Formula Working?

If your formula isn't working as expected, you've come to the right place. We'll help you figure out what's going on.

Formula parse error

If you press enter and get this error:

Then Google Sheets can't understand your instructions. There are a few reasons this might have happened:

• Did you use single quotes (') instead of double quotes (")? Google Sheets only understands double quotes (").
• Do you have a typo in the formula somewhere? For example, did you write a period (.) instead of a comma (,)?
• Did you incorrectly copy-paste something? A mistake might have snuck in there that way.

One suggestion is to ask ChatGPT for help. Copy-paste your formula to the prompt and add, "Why am I getting a formula parse error?" It might be able to help.

Name error

There are two most likely situations here:

1. You still need to enable Sapiengraph. To enable Sapiengraph, go to Extensions -> Sapiengraph and then click "Launch Sapiengraph."
   • You may need to permit Sapiengraph to access your spreadsheets if you haven't already.
   • Pay attention to your pop-up blocker in case your browser is blocking the permissions pop-up.
2. You have a typo in the formula name. It happens to all of us. The best way to avoid this is to delete the formula name (not the entire formula) and retype it using the down arrow key and tab once you see your desired function in the drop-down menu.

It's also possible that you have an incorrect named range if you're using these.

Ref error

Most likely, one or more of the cells you referred to got deleted.

For example, say your formula in B2 is =SG_PERSONAL_NUMBERS("A2") and A2 holds a LinkedIn URL. But then the entire A column gets deleted! Now you will have a Ref error.

How to fix it?

• If you just now deleted column A, you could try pressing ctrl+Z.
• If it's been a while, you can check your spreadsheet history (File -> Version history -> See version history), and rescue your data from a past version.
• If your old data is really irrecoverable from history, we recommend doing your best to reconstruct the missing values and replace the missing references in your formulas.

Note: To avoid this issue in the future, we recommend converting your cells to text after you have filled them from Sapiengraph formulas.

See the Getting Started Guide

If you're having trouble with installation, check out our getting started guide. It will walk you through installation all the way to creating your first formulas.

Still stuck?

We suggest asking ChatGPT for help - it's great at helping you to debug. Try asking it, "Why isn't my formula working? I'm using a custom extension." Then paste in your formula afterward. If this doesn't work, send us an email to [email protected] and we'll help you ourselves. We'll also keep updating this page over time with more answers to FAQ.