Stored formula results are useful review evidence, but they are easy to overstate. A workbook can retain the result Excel saved without revealing what a future recalculation will do.
FormulaFence 0.217.0 adds FF115: a high-severity CI finding for a formula whose exact saved result is Excel's null-intersection error.
A deliberately narrow signal
Microsoft describes that error as a formula error associated with an invalid range-intersection operator or areas that do not intersect. Its formula-error guidance and null-error guidance make it an important review signal, not a general missing-data marker.
FF115 reads only the exact stored error classification. It does not calculate a formula, resolve references, diagnose the cause, preserve formula text or cached values in its output, or claim that the error remains current. It reports the narrower fact a reviewer can act on: the saved formula result needs review.
The rule leaves missing, malformed, and other stored error types quiet. In particular, it does not turn saved #N/A results into this alert: Microsoft documents NA() as a deliberate way to create chart gaps.
Evidence that works in CI
The finding retains a location and an indication that the evidence is a saved formula result. Formula text, cached values, sheet names, external links, and calculation inputs stay out of FormulaFence's JSON, Markdown, and SARIF output.
A privacy-preserving replay across 5,933 public workbook artifacts found two candidate workbooks; FormulaFence loaded and linted both end to end, yielding exactly two FF115 findings and no competing rule at those locations. The release passed 1,545 tests, hosted CI, package lint and compilation, fresh wheel and source-distribution installs, and installation of the downloaded public-release wheel.
Read the full canonical release note for the validation boundary and install command, or use FormulaFence from GitHub.
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