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Lou365's avatar
Lou365
Copper Contributor
Jul 30, 2025

What is a Spill Error?

This has never happened before.  Is it new?  This occurred while creating a vlookup.  Can I get help with this?

 

1 Reply

  • In recent versions of Excel, a formula in one cell can return results to multiple cells. For example, the formula

    =SEQUENCE(4)

    will return the numbers 1 to 4 in four cells:

    The outline around the cells is the so-called spill area of the formula.

    If one of those cells is already filled, the formula cannot return its full results, so it will display #SPILL!

    In your VLOOKUP formula, if the first argument (the lookup value) is a multi-cell range, the formula will try to return multiple results. Apparently, there was not enough room for that.

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