I’m having trouble using the QUERY function on cells that contain formulas instead of plain values. Whenever I try to run a query on these formula-based cells, I keep getting parse errors. Does anyone know if it’s actually possible to query cells that are populated by formulas? Or do I have to convert all the formula results to static values first before I can use QUERY on them? I’m hoping there’s a workaround because manually converting everything would be really time consuming.
QUERY works fine with formula cells, so it’s your syntax that’s the problem. I’ve hit these parse errors before - they’re usually wrong column references or messed up WHERE clauses. Check you’re using proper column identifiers (A, B, C or Col1, Col2, etc.) and wrap any text values in single quotes. What saved me was testing QUERY on a smaller range first to find the broken part. Your formulas aren’t the issue, but the data types they return might mess with your query conditions.
yeah, QUERY works with formulas but empty cells and headers in your range can mess it up. try filtering out blanks first: =QUERY(A:C,"select * where A is not null"). also check for merged cells - they’ll break everything. I had the same issues until I cleaned up my data.
QUERY definitely works with formula cells - I use it all the time on calculated data. But there’s a common gotcha that’s probably causing your parse errors: mixed data types in the same column will break QUERY. If some formulas return numbers while others spit out text or #DIV/0! errors, QUERY can’t handle it. I usually wrap problematic formulas with IFERROR() or make sure they all return the same data type. Also check for trailing spaces or invisible characters in your formula cells - they’ll break QUERY parsing even when everything looks fine.
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