How to use INFO Function in Excel

The Excel INFO function returns information about the current environment, including platform, Excel version, number of worksheets in a workbook, and so on. To use the INFO function, supply the type of information you want as text. There are seven types of information available, summarized in the table below.

Syntax:= INFO (type_text)

The INFO function syntax has the following arguments:

• Type_text    Required. Text that specifies what type of information you want returned.

Type_text	Returns
“directory”	Path of the current directory or folder.
“numfile”	Number of active worksheets in the open workbooks.
“origin”	Returns the absolute cell reference of the top and leftmost cell visible in the window, based on the current scrolling position, as text prepended with “$A:”. This value is intended for for Lotus 1-2-3 release 3.x compatibility. The actual value returned depends on the current reference style setting. Using D9 as an example, the return value would be: A1 reference style     “$A:$D$9”. R1C1 reference style    “$A:R9C4”
“osversion”	Current operating system version, as text.
“recalc”	Current recalculation mode; returns “Automatic” or “Manual”.
“release”	Version of Microsoft Excel, as text.
“system”	Name of the operating environment: Macintosh = “mac” Windows = “pcdos”

Example: Let’s look at some Excel INFO function examples and explore how to use the INFO function as a worksheet function in Microsoft Excel:

Syntax:  =INFO(A2)

Result:

Note that the examples were run on a Windows operating system. The Info function may return different results on other operating systems.

Based on the Excel spreadsheet above, the following INFO examples would return:

Note:

1. #N/A! – In previous versions of Microsoft Excel, the “memavail,” “memused,” and “totmem” type_text values returned memory information. However, these are no longer supported and now return a #N/A error value.
2. #VALUE! error – Occurs when the type_text argument is any other invalid value.