Text value of a cell in excel

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Date yes Add (Subtract) Days to a Date Concatenate Dates Convert Date to Number Convert Date to Text Month Name to Number Create Date Range from Dates Day Number of Year Month Name from Date First Day of Month Add (Subtract) Weeks to a Date If Functions with Dates Max Date Number of Days Between Dates Number of Days in a Month Number of Weeks Between Dates Number of Years Between Dates Split Date & Time into Separate Cells Countdown Remaining Days Insert Dates Random Date Generator Using Dynamic Ranges — Year to Date Values Add (Subtract) Years to a Date Date Formula Examples Extract Day from Date Get Day Name from Date Count Days Left in Month / Year Count Workdays Left in Month / Year Get Last Day of Month Last Business Day of Month / Year Number of Work / Business Days in Month Weekday Abbreviations Auto Populate Dates Number of Months Between Dates Quarter from a Date Years of Service Change Date Format Compare Dates Time yes Add (Subtract) Hours to Time Add (Subtract) Minutes to Time Add (Subtract) Seconds to Time Add Up time (Total Time) Time Differences Change Time Format Convert Minutes to Hours Convert Time to Decimal Convert Time to Hours Convert Time to Minutes Convert Time to Seconds Military Time Round Time to Nearest 15 Minutes Overtime Calculator Number of Hours Between Times Convert Seconds to Minutes, Hours, or Time Count Hours Worked Time Differences Time Format — Show Minutes Seconds Text yes Add Commas to Cells Get First Word from Text Capitalize First Letter Clean & Format Phone #s Remove Extra Trailing / Leading Spaces Add Spaces to Cell Assign Number Value to Text Combine Cells with Comma Combine First and Last Names Convert Text String to Date Convert Text to Number Extract Text From Cell Get Last Word Remove Unwated Characters Extract Text Before or After Character How to Split Text String by Space, Comma, & More Remove Special Characters Remove First Characters from Left Substitute Multiple Values Switch First & Last Names w/ Commas Remove Specific Text from a Cell Extract Text Between Characters (Ex. Parenthesis) Add Leading Zeros to a Number Remove Line Breaks from Text Remove all Numbers from Text Reverse Text Remove Non-Numeric Characters Remove Last Character(s) From Right Separate First and Last Names Separate Text & Numbers Round yes Round Formulas Round Price to Nearest Dollar or Cent Round to Nearest 10, 100, or 1000 Round to Nearest 5 or .5 Round Percentages Round to Significant Figures Count yes Count Blank and Non-blank Cells Count Cells Between Two Numbers Count Cells not Equal to Count if Cells are in Range Count Times Word Appears in Cell Count Words in Cell Count Specific Characters in Column Count Total Number of Characters in Column Count Cells that Equal one of two Results Count Cells that do not Contain Count Cells that Contain Specific Text Count Unique Values in Range Countif — Multiple Criteria Count Total Number of Cells in Range Count Cells with Any Text Count Total Cells in a Table Lookup yes Two Dimensional VLOOKUP VLOOKUP Simple Example Vlookup — Multiple Matches Case Sensitive Lookup Case Sensitive VLOOKUP Sum if — VLOOKUP Case Sensitive Lookup Case Sensitive VLOOKUP Find Duplicates w/ VLOOKUP or MATCH INDEX MATCH MATCH Lookup — Return Cell Address (Not Value) Lookup Last Value in Column or Row Reverse VLOOKUP (Right to Left) Risk Score Bucket with VLOOKUP Sum with a VLOOKUP Function VLOOKUP & INDIRECT VLOOKUP Concatenate VLOOKUP Contains (Partial Match) 17 Reasons Why Your XLOOKUP is Not Working Double (Nested) XLOOKUP — Dynamic Columns IFERROR (& IFNA) XLOOKUP Lookup Min / Max Value Nested VLOOKUP Top 11 Alternatives to VLOOKUP (Updated 2022!) VLOOKUP – Dynamic Column Reference VLOOKUP – Fix #N/A Error VLOOKUP – Multiple Sheets at Once VLOOKUP & HLOOKUP Combined VLOOKUP & MATCH Combined VLOOKUP Between Worksheets or Spreadsheets VLOOKUP Duplicate Values VLOOKUP Letter Grades VLOOKUP Return Multiple Columns VLOOKUP Returns 0? Return Blank Instead VLOOKUP w/o #N/A Error XLOOKUP Multiple Sheets at Once XLOOKUP Between Worksheets or Spreadsheets XLOOKUP by Date XLOOKUP Duplicate Values XLOOKUP Multiple Criteria XLOOKUP Return Multiple Columns XLOOKUP Returns 0? Return Blank Instead XLOOKUP Text XLOOKUP with IF XLOOKUP With If Statement Misc. yes Sort Multiple Columns Use Cell Value in Formula Percentage Change Between Numbers Percentage Breakdown Rank Values Add Spaces to Cell CAGR Formula Average Time Decimal Part of Number Integer Part of a Number Compare Items in a List Dealing with NA() Errors Get Worksheet Name Wildcard Characters Hyperlink to Current Folder Compound Interest Formula Percentage Increase Create Random Groups Sort with the Small and Large Functions Non-volatile Function Alternatives Decrease a Number by a Percentage Calculate Percent Variance Profit Margin Calculator Convert Column Number to Letter Get Full Address of Named Range Insert File Name Insert Path Latitute / Longitude Functions Replace Negative Values Reverse List Range Convert State Name to Abbreviation Create Dynamic Hyperlinks Custom Sort List with Formula Data Validation — Custom Formulas Dynamic Sheet Reference (INDIRECT) Reference Cell in Another Sheet or Workbook Get Cell Value by Address Get Worksheet Name Increment Cell Reference List Sheet Names List Skipped Numbers in Sequence Return Address of Max Value in Range Search by Keywords Select Every Other (or Every nth) Row Basics yes Cell Reference Basics — A1, R1C1, 3d, etc. Add Up (Sum) Entire Column or Row Into to Dynamic Array Formulas Conversions yes Convert Time Zones Convert Celsius to Fahrenheit Convert Pounds to Kilograms Convert Time to Unix Time Convert Feet to Meters Convert Centimeters to Inches Convert Kilometers to Miles Convert Inches to Feet Convert Date to Julian Format Convert Column Letter to Number Tests yes Test if a Range Contains any Text Test if any Cell in Range is Number Test if a Cell Contains a Specific Value Test if Cell Contains Any Number Test if Cell Contains Specific Number Test if Cell is Number or Text If yes Percentile If Subtotal If Sumproduct If Large If and Small If Median If Concatentate If Max If Rank If TEXTJOIN If Sum yes Sum if — Begins With / Ends With Sum if — Month or Year to Date Sum if — By Year Sum if — Blank / Non-Blank Sum if — Horizontal Sum Count / Sum If — Cell Color INDIRECT Sum Sum If — Across Multiple Sheets Sum If — By Month Sum If — Cells Not Equal To Sum If — Not Blank Sum if — Between Values Sum If — Week Number Sum Text Sum if — By Category or Group Sum if — Cell Contains Specific Text (Wildcards) Sum if — Date Rnage Sum if — Dates Equal Sum if — Day of Week Sum if — Greater Than Sum if — Less Than Average yes Average Non-Zero Values Average If — Not Blank Average — Ignore 0 Average — Ignore Errors Math yes Multiplication Table Cube Roots nth Roots Square Numbers Square Roots Calculations yes Calculate a Ratio Calculate Age KILLLLLLL Calculate Loan Payments GPA Formula Calculate VAT Tax How to Grade Formulas Find yes Find a Number in a Column / Workbook Find Most Frequent Numbers Find Smallest n Values Find nth Occurance of Character in Text Find and Extract Number from String Find Earliest or Latest Date Based on Criteria Find First Cell with Any Value Find Last Row Find Last Row with Data Find Missing Values Find Largest n Values Most Frequent Number Conditional Formatting yes Conditional Format — Dates & Times Conditional Format — Highlight Blank Cells New Functions XLOOKUP Replaces VLOOKUP, HLOOKUP, and INDEX / MATCH Logical yes AND Checks whether all conditions are met. TRUE/FALSE IF If condition is met, do something, if not, do something else. IFERROR If result is an error then do something else. NOT Changes TRUE to FALSE and FALSE to TRUE. OR Checks whether any conditions are met. TRUE/FALSE XOR Checks whether one and only one condition is met. TRUE/FALSE Lookup & Reference yes FALSE The logical value: FALSE. TRUE The logical value: TRUE. ADDRESS Returns a cell address as text. AREAS Returns the number of areas in a reference. CHOOSE Chooses a value from a list based on it’s position number. COLUMN Returns the column number of a cell reference. COLUMNS Returns the number of columns in an array. HLOOKUP Lookup a value in the first row and return a value. HYPERLINK Creates a clickable link. INDEX Returns a value based on it’s column and row numbers. INDIRECT Creates a cell reference from text. LOOKUP Looks up values either horizontally or vertically. MATCH Searches for a value in a list and returns its position. OFFSET Creates a reference offset from a starting point. ROW Returns the row number of a cell reference. ROWS Returns the number of rows in an array. TRANSPOSE Flips the oriention of a range of cells. VLOOKUP Lookup a value in the first column and return a value. Date & Time yes DATE Returns a date from year, month, and day. DATEDIF Number of days, months or years between two dates. DATEVALUE Converts a date stored as text into a valid date DAY Returns the day as a number (1-31). DAYS Returns the number of days between two dates. DAYS360 Returns days between 2 dates in a 360 day year. EDATE Returns a date, n months away from a start date. EOMONTH Returns the last day of the month, n months away date. HOUR Returns the hour as a number (0-23). MINUTE Returns the minute as a number (0-59). MONTH Returns the month as a number (1-12). NETWORKDAYS Number of working days between 2 dates. NETWORKDAYS.INTL Working days between 2 dates, custom weekends. NOW Returns the current date and time. SECOND Returns the second as a number (0-59) TIME Returns the time from a hour, minute, and second. TIMEVALUE Converts a time stored as text into a valid time. TODAY Returns the current date. WEEKDAY Returns the day of the week as a number (1-7). WEEKNUM Returns the week number in a year (1-52). WORKDAY The date n working days from a date. WORKDAY.INTL The date n working days from a date, custom weekends. YEAR Returns the year. YEARFRAC Returns the fraction of a year between 2 dates. Engineering yes CONVERT Convert number from one unit to another. Financial yes FV Calculates the future value. PV Calculates the present value. NPER Calculates the total number of payment periods. PMT Calculates the payment amount. RATE Calculates the interest Rate. NPV Calculates the net present value. IRR The internal rate of return for a set of periodic CFs. XIRR The internal rate of return for a set of non-periodic CFs. PRICE Calculates the price of a bond. YIELD Calculates the bond yield. INTRATE The interest rate of a fully invested security. Information yes CELL Returns information about a cell. ERROR.TYPE Returns a value representing the cell error. ISBLANK Test if cell is blank. TRUE/FALSE ISERR Test if cell value is an error, ignores #N/A. TRUE/FALSE ISERROR Test if cell value is an error. TRUE/FALSE ISEVEN Test if cell value is even. TRUE/FALSE ISFORMULA Test if cell is a formula. TRUE/FALSE ISLOGICAL Test if cell is logical (TRUE or FALSE). TRUE/FALSE ISNA Test if cell value is #N/A. TRUE/FALSE ISNONTEXT Test if cell is not text (blank cells are not text). TRUE/FALSE ISNUMBER Test if cell is a number. TRUE/FALSE ISODD Test if cell value is odd. TRUE/FALSE ISREF Test if cell value is a reference. TRUE/FALSE ISTEXT Test if cell is text. TRUE/FALSE N Converts a value to a number. NA Returns the error: #N/A. TYPE Returns the type of value in a cell. Math yes ABS Calculates the absolute value of a number. AGGREGATE Define and perform calculations for a database or a list. CEILING Rounds a number up, to the nearest specified multiple. COS Returns the cosine of an angle. DEGREES Converts radians to degrees. DSUM Sums database records that meet certain criteria. EVEN Rounds to the nearest even integer. EXP Calculates the exponential value for a given number. FACT Returns the factorial. FLOOR Rounds a number down, to the nearest specified multiple. GCD Returns the greatest common divisor. INT Rounds a number down to the nearest integer. LCM Returns the least common multiple. LN Returns the natural logarithm of a number. LOG Returns the logarithm of a number to a specified base. LOG10 Returns the base-10 logarithm of a number. MOD Returns the remainder after dividing. MROUND Rounds a number to a specified multiple. ODD Rounds to the nearest odd integer. PI The value of PI. POWER Calculates a number raised to a power. PRODUCT Multiplies an array of numbers. QUOTIENT Returns the integer result of division. RADIANS Converts an angle into radians. RAND Calculates a random number between 0 and 1. RANDBETWEEN Calculates a random number between two numbers. ROUND Rounds a number to a specified number of digits. ROUNDDOWN Rounds a number down (towards zero). ROUNDUP Rounds a number up (away from zero). SIGN Returns the sign of a number. SIN Returns the sine of an angle. SQRT Calculates the square root of a number. SUBTOTAL Returns a summary statistic for a series of data. SUM Adds numbers together. SUMIF Sums numbers that meet a criteria. SUMIFS Sums numbers that meet multiple criteria. SUMPRODUCT Multiplies arrays of numbers and sums the resultant array. TAN Returns the tangent of an angle. TRUNC Truncates a number to a specific number of digits. Stats yes AVERAGE Averages numbers. AVERAGEA Averages numbers. Includes text & FALSE =0, TRUE =1. AVERAGEIF Averages numbers that meet a criteria. AVERAGEIFS Averages numbers that meet multiple criteria. CORREL Calculates the correlation of two series. COUNT Counts cells that contain a number. COUNTA Count cells that are non-blank. COUNTBLANK Counts cells that are blank. COUNTIF Counts cells that meet a criteria. COUNTIFS Counts cells that meet multiple criteria. FORECAST Predict future y-values from linear trend line. FREQUENCY Counts values that fall within specified ranges. GROWTH Calculates Y values based on exponential growth. INTERCEPT Calculates the Y intercept for a best-fit line. LARGE Returns the kth largest value. LINEST Returns statistics about a trendline. MAX Returns the largest number. MEDIAN Returns the median number. MIN Returns the smallest number. MODE Returns the most common number. PERCENTILE Returns the kth percentile. PERCENTILE.INC Returns the kth percentile. Where k is inclusive. PERCENTILE.EXC Returns the kth percentile. Where k is exclusive. QUARTILE Returns the specified quartile value. QUARTILE.INC Returns the specified quartile value. Inclusive. QUARTILE.EXC Returns the specified quartile value. Exclusive. RANK Rank of a number within a series. RANK.AVG Rank of a number within a series. Averages. RANK.EQ Rank of a number within a series. Top Rank. SLOPE Calculates the slope from linear regression. SMALL Returns the kth smallest value. STDEV Calculates the standard deviation. STDEV.P Calculates the SD of an entire population. STDEV.S Calculates the SD of a sample. STDEVP Calculates the SD of an entire population TREND Calculates Y values based on a trendline. Text yes CHAR Returns a character specified by a code. CLEAN Removes all non-printable characters. CODE Returns the numeric code for a character. CONCATENATE Combines text together. DOLLAR Converts a number to text in currency format. EXACT Test if cells are exactly equal. Case-sensitive. TRUE/FALSE FIND Locates position of text within a cell.Case-sensitive. LEFT Truncates text a number of characters from the left. LEN Counts number of characters in text. LOWER Converts text to lower case. MID Extracts text from the middle of a cell. PROPER Converts text to proper case. REPLACE Replaces text based on it’s location. REPT Repeats text a number of times. RIGHT Truncates text a number of characters from the right. SEARCH Locates position of text within a cell.Not Case-sensitive. SUBSTITUTE Finds and replaces text. Case-sensitive. TEXT Converts a value into text with a specific number format. TRIM Removes all extra spaces from text. UPPER Converts text to upper case. VALUE Converts a number stored as text into a number.

Use the CELL function to return a wide range of information about a reference. The type of information  returned is given as info_type, which must be enclosed in double quotes («»). CELL can return a cell’s address, the filename and path for a workbook, and information about the formatting used in the cell. See below for a full list of info types and format codes.

CELL is a volatile function, and can cause performance issues in large or complex worksheets.

The CELL function takes two arguments: info_type and reference. Info_type is a text string that indicates the type of information requested. See the table below for a full list of info types. Reference is a cell reference. Reference is typically a single cell. If reference refers to more than one cell, CELL returns information about the first cell in reference. For certain kinds of information (like filename) the cell address used for reference is optional and can be omitted. However, if reference is not supplied, CELL will return the name of the current «active sheet» which may or may not be the sheet where the formula exists, and might even be in a different workbook. To avoid confusion, use A1 for reference. 

Note: the CELL function is a volatile function and may cause performance issues in large or complex worksheets.

Examples

For example, to get the column number for C10:

=CELL("col", C10) // returns 3

To get the address of A1 as text:

=CELL("address",A1) // returns "$A$1"

To get the full path and workbook name for the current worksheet:

=CELL("filename",A1) // path + filename

CELL can also return format code information. For example, if A1 contains the number 100 with the currency number format applied, the CELL function will return «C2»:

=CELL("format",A1) // returns "C2"

When requesting the info_type «format» or «parentheses», a set of empty parentheses «()» is appended to the format returned if the number format uses parentheses for all values or for positive values. For example, if A1 uses the custom number format (0), then:

=CELL("format",A1) // returns "F0()"

Info types

The following info_types can be used with the CELL function:

Info_type	Description
address	returns the address of the first cell in reference (as text).
col	returns the column number of the first cell in reference.
color	returns the value 1 if the first cell in reference is formatted using color for negative values; or zero if not.
contents	returns the value of the upper-left cell in reference. Formulas are not returned. Instead, the result of the formula is returned.
filename	returns the file name and full path as text. If the worksheet that contains reference has not yet been saved, an empty string is returned.
format	returns a code that corresponds to the number format of the cell. See below for a list of number format codes. If the first cell in reference is formatted with color for values < 0, then «-» is appended to the code. If the cell is formatted with parentheses, returns «() — at the end of the code value.
parentheses	returns 1 if the first cell in reference is formatted with parentheses and 0 if not.
prefix	returns a text value that corresponds to the label prefix — of the cell:  a single quotation mark (‘) if the cell text is left-aligned, a double quotation mark («) if the cell text is right-aligned, a caret (^) if the cell text is centered text, a backslash () if the cell text is fill-aligned, and an empty string if the label prefix is anything else.
protect	returns 1 if the first cell in reference is locked or 0 if not.
row	returns the row number of the first cell in reference.
type	returns a text value that corresponds to the type of data in the first cell in reference:  «b» for blank when the cell is empty, «l»  for label if the cell contains a text constant, and «v» for value if the cell contains anything else.
width	returns the column width of the cell, rounded to the nearest integer. A unit of column width is equal to the width of one character in the default font size. Note: this value comes back as an array with two values {width,default} where width is the column width and default is a boolean value that indicates if the width is the default column width.

Format codes

The table below shows the text codes returned by CELL when «format» is used for info_type.

Format code returned	Format code meaning
G	General
F0	0
,0	#,##0
F2	0
,2	#,##0.00
C0	$#,##0_);($#,##0)
C0-	$#,##0_);[Red]($#,##0)
C2	$#,##0.00_);($#,##0.00)
C2-	$#,##0.00_);[Red]($#,##0.00)
P0	0%
P2	0.00%
S2	0.00E+00
G	# ?/? or # ??/??
D1	d-mmm-yy or dd-mmm-yy
D2	d-mmm or dd-mmm
D3	mmm-yy
D4	m/d/yy or m/d/yy h:mm or mm/dd/yy
D5	mm/dd
D6	h:mm:ss AM/PM
D7	h:mm AM/PM
D8	h:mm:ss

Notes

• The CELL function is a volatile function and may cause performance issues in large or complex worksheets.
• Reference is optional for some info types, but use an address like A1 to avoid unexpected behavior.

Value2 is almost always the best choice to read from or write to an Excel cell or a range… from VBA.

Range.Value2 '<------Best way

Each of the following can be used to read from a range:

v = [a1]
v = [a1].Value
v = [a1].Value2
v = [a1].Text 
v = [a1].Formula
v = [a1].FormulaR1C1

Each of the following can be used to write to a range:

[a1] = v
[a1].Value = v
[a1].Value2 = v
[a1].Formula = v
[a1].FormulaR1C1 = v

To read many values from a large range, or to write many values, it can be orders of magnitude faster to do the entire operation in one go instead of cell by cell:

arr = [a1:z999].Value2

If arr is a variable of type Variant, the above line actually creates an OLE SAFEARRAY structure of variants 26 columns wide and 999 rows tall and points the Variant arr at the SAFEARRAY structure in memory.

[a1].Resize(UBound(arr), UBound(arr, 2).Value2 = arr

The above line writes the entire array to the worksheet in one go no matter how big the array is (as long as it will fit in the worksheet).

The default property of the range object is the Value property. So if no property is specified for the range, the Value property is silently referenced by default.

However, Value2 is the quickest property to access range values and when reading it returns the true underlying cell value. It ignores Number Formats, Dates, Times, and Currency and returns numbers as the VBA Double data type, always. Since Value2 attempts to do less work, it executes slightly more quickly than does Value.

The Value property, on the other hand, checks if a cell value has a Number Format of Date or Time and will return a value of the VBA Date data type in these cases. If your VBA code will be working with the Date data type, it may make sense to retrieve them with the Value property. And writing a VBA Date data type to a cell will automatically format the cell with the corresponding date or time number format. And
writing a VBA Currency data type to a cell will automatically apply the currency Number Format to the appropriate cells.

Similarly, Value checks for cell currency formatting and then
returns values of the VBA Currency data type. This can lead to
loss of precision as the VBA Currency data type only recognizes
four decimal places (because the VBA Currency data type is really just a 64-bit Integer scaled by 10000) and so values are rounded to four places,
at most. And strangely, that precision is cut to just two decimal
places when using Value to write a VBA Currency variable to a worksheet range.

The read-only Text property always returns a VBA String data type. The value returned by Range.Text is a textual representation of what is displayed in each cell, inclusive of Number Formats, Dates, Times, Currency, and Error text. This is not an efficient way to get numerical values into VBA as implicit or explicit coercion is required. Text will return ####### when columns are too thin and it will slow down even more when some row heights are adjusted. Text is always VERY slow compared to Value and Value2. However, since Text retains the formatted appearance of cell values, Text may be useful, especially for populating userform controls with properly formatted text values.

Similarly, both Formula and FormulaR1C1 always return values as a VBA String data type. If the cell contains a formula then Formula returns its A1-style representation and FormulaR1C1 returns its R1C1 representation. If a cell has a hard value instead of a formula then both Formula and FormulaR1C1 ignore all formatting and return the true underlying cell value exactly like Value2 does… and then take a further step to convert that value to a string. Again, this is not an efficient way to get numerical values into VBA as implicit or explicit coercion is required. However, Formula and FormulaR1C1 must be used to read cell
formulas. And they should be used to write formulas to cells.

If cell A1 contains the numeric value of 100.25 with a currency number formatting
of $#,##0.00_);($#,##0.00) consider the following:

MsgBox [a1].Value                   'Displays:  100.25
MsgBox TypeName([a1].Value)         'Displays: Currency
 
MsgBox [a1].Value2                  'Displays:  100.25
MsgBox TypeName([a1].Value2)        'Displays: Double
 
MsgBox [a1].Text                    'Displays: $ 100.25
MsgBox TypeName([a1].Text)          'Displays: String
 
MsgBox [a1].Formula                 'Displays: 100.25
MsgBox TypeName([a1].Formula)       'Displays: String
 
MsgBox [a1].FormulaR1C1             'Displays: 100.25
MsgBox TypeName([a1].FormulaR1C1)   'Displays: String
  

Excel is a great tool which can be used for data entry, as a database, and to analyze data and create dashboards and reports.

While most of the in-built features and default settings are meant to be useful and save time for the users, sometimes, you may want to change things a little.

Converting your numbers into text is one such scenario.

In this tutorial, I will show you some easy ways to quickly convert numbers to text in Excel.

Why Convert Numbers to Text in Excel?

When working with numbers in Excel, it’s best to keep these as numbers only. But in some cases, having a number could actually be a problem.

Lets look at a couple of scenarios where having numbers creates issues for the users.

Keeping Leading Zeros

For example, if you enter 001 in a cell in Excel, you will notice that Excel automatically removes the leading zeros (as it thinks these are unnecessary).

While this is not an issue in most cases (as you wouldn’t leading zeros), in case you do need these then one of the solutions is to convert these numbers to text.

This way, you get exactly what you enter.

One common scenario where you might need this is when you’re working with large numbers – such as SSN or employee ids that have leading zeros.

Entering Large Numeric Values

Do you know that you can only enter a numeric value that is 15 digits long in Excel? If you enter a 16 digit long number, it will change the 16th digit to 0.

So if you are working with SSN, account numbers, or any other type of large numbers, there is a possibility that your input data is automatically being changed by Excel.

And what’s even worse is that you don’t get any prompt or error. It just changes the digits to 0 after the 15th digit.

Again, this is something that is taken care of if you convert the number to text.

Changing Numbers to Dates

This one erk a lot of people (including myself).

Try entering 01-01 in Excel and it will automatically change it to date (01 January of the current year).

So if you enter anything that is a valid date format in Excel, it would be converted to a date.

A lot of people reach out to me for this as they want to enter scores in Excel in this format, but end up getting frustrated when they see dates instead.

Again, changing the format of the cell from number to text will help keep the scores as is.

Now, let’s go ahead and have a look at some of the methods you can use to convert numbers to text in Excel.

Convert Numbers to Text in Excel

In this section, I will cover four different ways you can use to convert numbers to text in Excel.

Not all these methods are the same and some would be more suitable than others depending on your situation.

So let’s dive in!

Adding an Apostrophe

If you manually entering data in Excel and you don’t want your numbers to change the format automatically, here is a simple trick:

Add an apostrophe (‘) before the number

So if you want to enter 001, enter ‘001 (where there is an apostrophe before the number).

And don’t worry, the apostrophe is not visible in the cell. You will only see the number.

When you add an apostrophe before a number, it will change it to text and also add a small green triangle at the top left part of the cell (as shown in th image). It’s Exel way to letting you know that the cell has a number that has been converted to text.

When you add an apostrophe before a number, it tells Excel to consider whatever follows as text.

A quick way to visually confirm whether the cells are formatted as text or not is to see whether the numbers align to the left out to the right. When numbers are formatted as text, they align to the right by default (as they alight to the left)

Even if you add an apostrophe before a number in a cell in Excel, you can still use these as numbers in calculations

Similarly, if you want to enter 01-01, adding an apostrophe would make sure that it doesn’t get changed into a date.

Although this technique works in all cases, it is only useful if you’re manually entering a few numbers in Excel. If you enter a lot of data in a specific range of rows/columns, use the next method.

Converting Cell Format to Text

Another way to make sure that any numeric entry in Excel is considered a text value is by changing the format of the cell.

This way, you don’t have to worry about entering an apostrophe every time you manually enter the data.

You can go ahead entering the data just like you usually do, and Excel would make sure that your numbers are not changed.

Here is how to do this:

1. Select the range or rows/column where you would be entering the data
2. Click the Home tab

1. In the Number group, click on the format drop down

1. Select Text from the options that show up

The above steps would change the default formatting of the cells from General to Text.

Now, if you enter any number or any text string in these cells, it would automatically be considered as a text string.

This means that Excel would not automatically change the text you enter (such as truncating the leading zeros or converting entered numbers into dates)

In this example, while I changed the cell formatting first before entering the data, you can also do this with cells that already have data in them.

But remember that if you already had entered numbers that were changed by Excel (such as removing leading zeros or changing text to dates), that won’t come back. You will have to make that data entry again.

Also, keep in mind that cell formatting can change in case you copy and paste some data to these cells. With regular copy-paste, it also copied the formatting from the copied cells. So it’s best to copy and paste values only.

Using the TEXT Function

Excel has an in-built TEXT function that is meant to convert a numeric value to a text value (where you have to specify the format of the text in which you want to get the final result).

This method is useful when you already have a set of numbers and you want to show them in a more readable format or if you want to add some text as suffix or prefix to these numbers.

Suppose you have a set of numbers as shown below, and you want to show all these numbers as five-digit values (which means to add leading zeros to numbers that are less than 5 digits).

While Excel removes any leading zeros in numbers, you can use the below formula to get this:

=TEXT(A2,"00000")

In the above formula, I have used “00000” as the second argument, which tells the formula the format of the output I desire. In this example, 00000 would mean that I need all the numbers to be at least five-digit long.

You can do a lot more with the TEXT function – such as add currency symbol, add prefix or suffix to the numbers, or change the format to have comma or decimals.

Using this method can be useful when you already have the data in Excel and you want to format it in a specific way.

This can also be helpful in saving time when doing manual data entry, where you can quickly enter the data and then use the TEXT function to get it in the desired format.

Using Text to Columns

Another quick way to convert numbers to text in Excel is by using the Text to Columns wizard.

While the purpose of Text to Columns is to split the data into multiple columns, it has a setting that also allows us to quickly select a range of cells and convert all the numbers into text with a few clicks.

Suppose you have a data set is shown below, and you want to convert all the numbers in columns A into text.

Below are the steps to do this:

1. Select the numbers in Column A
2. Click the Data tab

1. Click on the Text to Columns icon in the ribbon. This will open the text to columns wizard this will open the text to column wizard

1. In Step 1 of 3, click the Next button
2. In Step 2 of 3, click the Next button
3. In Step 3 of 3, under the ‘Column data format’ options, select Text

1. Click on Finish

The above steps would instantly convert all these numbers in Column A into text. You notice that the numbers would now be aligned to the right (indicating that the cell content is text).  

There would also be a small green triangle at the top left part of the cell, which is a way Excel informs you that there are numbers that are stored as text.

So these are four easy ways that you can use to quickly convert numbers to text in Excel.

In case you only want this for a few cells where you would be manually entering the data, I suggest you use the apostrophe method. If you need to do data entry for more than a few cells, you can try changing the format of the cells from General to Text.

And in case you already have the numbers in Excel and you want to convert them to text, you can use the TEXT formula method or the Text to Columns method I covered in this tutorial.

I hope you found this tutorial useful.

Other Excel tutorials you may also like:

• Convert Text to Numbers in Excel
• How to Convert Serial Numbers to Dates in Excel
• Convert Date to Text in Excel – Explained with Examples
• How to Convert Formulas to Values in Excel
• Convert Time to Decimal Number in Excel
• How to Convert Inches to MM, CM, or Feet in Excel?
• Convert Scientific Notation to Number or Text in Excel
• Separate Text and Numbers in Excel

Microsoft Excel is a great tool, but sometimes the spreadsheet files we get to work with aren’t ideal. One example is a file with a data column, maybe a street address, that you’d really like to pull apart. In this tutorial, I’ll show how to extract text from a cell in Excel using some powerful, but simple text functions. (Includes practice workbook.)

What’s an Excel Substring?

Before we have Excel extract text from string, we need to define some things. Some programming languages have dedicated substring functions. Excel does something similar using Text functions. They have their own category.

When we speak of a substring, we mean a part or subset of the Excel cell’s content. For example, if the cell contained 1001 Drake Ave., any of these items could be a substring:

• 1001
• Drake Ave.
• 100
• rake

A Common Problem

Many membership databases or mailing lists are set up with defined fields for First Name, Last Name, Street, City, State, and Zip. This format works fine if you’re creating a mailing label as the post office relies on zip code sorting. And sometimes you can luck out and parse first and last names using Excel’s Convert Text to Columns Wizard.

But what if you need to do door-to-door canvassing to check on neighbors or to inform people about an upcoming ballot measure?

If you open this type of list in Excel and sort it on the Street column, you get a numerically sorted list. As you can see in the example below, the Drake Ave records are not together.

Ideally, you want to sort the list so the Drake Ave. entries are together. There are several ways to do this in Excel, but one way is to create two columns from the Street column.

The first column reflects the street number substring, and the second the street name substring. You can then resort the list based on the street name and street number.

Visually Building the Nested Formula

For the first example, we’ll nest some Excel functions such as LEFT and FIND. As we progress, we’ll add several sets of parentheses. By nested, I mean we’ll use one function (FIND) as an argument for another function such as LEFT or RIGHT.

Let’s start with =FIND(" ",C2). In plain text, our function syntax is asking Excel to look in reference cell C2 for a blank space which is represented by the ” “. In the picture below, I added a starting position of “1“, but this is an optional parameter and Excel starts at 1 by default. Excel found the blank space in position 5 which shows in cell D2.

To make the formula easier, I’ll remove the optional starting parameter of 1 since Excel starts there anyway.

Now, let’s add the LEFT function so that our formula reads =LEFT(C2,(FIND(" ",C2))). In this instance, we’re again using cell C2, but the LEFT function is going to grab the cell contents in C2 from position 1 to position 5 where the Excel FIND function found the blank space.

However, there is a minor issue. While you can’t see it, there is a trailing space in D2. Using the LEN function we can see cell D2 has 5 characters. You may remember this handy function from our tutorial on how to check character count in Excel.

The solution is to subtract 1 or use the TRIM function which I referenced in how to separate names in Excel. For simplicity, I’ll use the -1. While the visual results are the same, you can see the character count dropped by 1.

1. Import your data into Microsoft Excel or use the sample spreadsheet in the Resources section.
2. In cell D1, type Nbr.
3. In cell E1, type Street Name
4. In cell D2, type the following Excel formula =LEFT(C2,(FIND(" ",C2)-1))
5. Press Enter. The value 1001 should show in D2.

The next part involves copying this formula to the rest of the entries. However, we need to reference the correct street cell and not use C2 for the remaining rows.

1. Click cell D2 to select the beginning of our range.
2. Move your mouse to the lower right corner.

1. Double-click the + cursor in the lower right. This will copy your formula down the column.

In column D, you should see the extracted street numbers.

We’ll now create a similar nested formula to capture the street address using the RIGHT function. This time, we will grab the contents to the right of the first space from the Street column.

1. In cell E2, type the following formula =RIGHT(C2,LEN(C2)-FIND(" ",C2))
2. Press Enter. E2 should show as Drake Ave.
3. Click cell E2 to select the beginning of our range.
4. Move your mouse to the lower right corner.
5. Double-click the + cursor in the lower right. This will copy your formula down the column.

Columns D and E should contain the parsed contents from your original street address.

Your spreadsheet should look similar to the one below.

Clean Up the Spreadsheet and Change Cell Format

The spreadsheet now has your split fields, but you should clean up the formulas. My suggestion would be to convert the LEFT and RIGHT formulas to their respective values. We did an earlier tutorial on how to copy formula values in Excel to values.

After you convert the Nbr column, you probably want to change the format type to a number.

1. Click column D.
2. Right-click and select Format cells...
3. On the Format Cells dialog box, select Number.
4. Set Decimal places to 0.
5. Click OK.

Although our example extracted text from an Excel cell containing street information, you can use the same process to parse other entries. For example, Step 1 above is really parsing everything but the first word because it is searching for a blank space. You can alter the formula to find different values, such as a comma or an @ sign.

Excel Practice File

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