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text to number.... 2

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Yogi39

Technical User
Jun 20, 2001
273
CA
Working with a worksheet which has numbers preceded by '.
Ex: cell content = '123
which makes the number seen as text...how can I remove the ' to get all my data as numbers ?
 
Highlight desired area.
Edit > Replace > put a ' in the Replace field, leave the replace with field blank, hit replace all

"'Tis an ill wind that blows no minds." - Malaclypse the Younger
 
Scratch that...jumped the gun...ineffective

"'Tis an ill wind that blows no minds." - Malaclypse the Younger
 
I've just tried '123 myself and the number 123 automatically appears. Check the formatting of the cells and if that doesn't tell you much do a find and replace to find ' and replace it with nothing

dyarwood
 
Find and replace won't work, I learned quickly.
Copy all cells with the ' in them and then paste special into another column, checking the Values option before you paste. This will eliminate your ' marks.

"'Tis an ill wind that blows no minds." - Malaclypse the Younger
 
You could use =Value function to convert text into values in a spare column then copy the column and Paste\special\values it bck into the original column

Regards

Keith
 
Hi Yogi39,

Find an empty cell somewhere and copy it.
Select the cells with your 'text numbers' and ..
Edit > PasteSpecial > Add

Enjoy,
Tony

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We want to help you; help us to do it by reading FAQ222-2244 before you ask a question.
 
If this is what I think it is, you'll all kick yourselves

My bet is that under Tools>Options>Transition
You have Transition Navigation Keys ticked

this causes excel to show a ' in front of a number to indicate it is stored as text

To get rid of the ' just untick the box. The number will still be stored as text though

If you don't want to untick Transition Navigation Keys you need to use the *1 fix

Enter a 1 into any blank cell
Copy It
Select all the data that needs the ' removed
Edit>Pastespecial Check Values and Tick Multiply

et voila, no more 's as the data will be transformed to numbers rather than text

Rgds, Geoff
[blue]Si hoc signum legere potes, operis boni in rebus Latinus alacribus et fructuosis potiri potes![/blue]
Want the [red]best[/red] answers to your questions ? faq222-2244
 
Thanks the Edit > PasteSpecial > Add worked great !
 
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