What does N/A stand for? N/A or “Not Applicable” is a common abbreviation in lists and tables for the term either not available not applicable or the question is not answered. It is commonly used to represent a cell that does not respond to any question in the particular table or column. In some cases, “not applicable” cells are positioned at the far left, right or center of a list or table to make it easier for the user to find the cell that is not applicable to any question he is asking. In other cases, such cells are placed at the end of the respective cells so as to separate related information from those that are not relevant.

For example, if you want to find out whether: Tom is at home or not, you would type in his name n/a into the search field of his phone number appearing in the table. If the phone number is found and Tom is the one calling, then the cell in which the phone number is stored is displayed as “tom.n/a”. You can see how useful this n/a indicator can be, especially in situations where you do not know the exact meaning of the question you are asking and in which it is very difficult to find the answer you want. Sometimes, even if you are very sure about the correct answer, it will still prove handy to check the alternative text that could have been suggested by another means.

So, what does N/A stand for in terms of “not applicable” cells? In general, the cell content that does not yield an answer to any question is called “not applicable” in the language of Excel. A small letter denoting the particular cell (upper case N/A) may be written above this cell when the particular question has more than one answer that is acceptable.

This way of typing information into a table makes it possible to use: drop-down lists to select the cells to be included in the result set of the formula. In this way, what does n/a stand for in a cell will become relevant and meaningful because of the possibility of more than one answer. This facility is very useful in situations where you need to sort through large sets of data, but you only have one list and you cannot afford to look at the rest of the cells. This situation does not occur often, but when it does, the option of sorting the data using more than one drop-down list makes this task simple and easy.

When you select a cell in a drop-down list: what does n/a stand for in that particular cell depends on what you want to find out. If you are looking for more specific information such as the name or address of someone, you can specify n/a to find information that has that particular data. If you are looking at more general information, such as the time of day, what does n/a stand for in the cell will become more relevant when you consider what other items you want.

A formula such as this one enables you to sort through large amounts of information: but it is an especially useful tool for those who are working with large amounts of data that they need to analyze. It allows them to cut down on the time they spend looking at each piece of information and instead spend their time evaluating the results from each cell. Once you have finished evaluating the cell, you know what does n/a stand for in that cell and can sort through the results to find what you are looking for.

This is an essential feature of a formula such as this one and you should make sure you keep it in mind whenever you use a formula such as this.