

When you complete the process, the contents of your cells should be right-aligned indicating they’re now numeric values. Select the cells with the contents you want to change their format. This means you can change the format from text to number. The Format menu contains options that you can use to change cell format. You will be able to confirm the conversion by the obvious right alignment of the cell contents. In a new cell, copy and paste any of the above formula syntaxes. This will force the results into a number. There is a very easy way to convert text values to numbers, you simply have to multiply by 1. Convert Text to Numbers by Multiplication
#PHONE NUMBER TO TEXT CONVERTER HOW TO#
Now that you know how to identify the type of formatting in a cell, you might want to change these text characters to numeric values. Nevertheless, you will be certain of which cells have numeric content and which have text values. The only drawback with this method is that you have to create a new column of redundant data. This will return FALSE if the number is a text value. You can also follow the same process to use the above ISNUMBER syntax. This will return TRUE for any cell which contains text values. = ARRAYFORMULA ( ISTEXT ( A2:A6 ) )Īlternatively, you can use place the function in an ARRAYFORMULA like above. Then use the fill handle to copy down the formula to other cells. = ISTEXT ( A2 )Įnter the above function syntax into a new cell. ISNUMBER checks whether a value is numeric. ISTEXT checks whether a value is a text string. They will give you a fool-proof test regarding the type of formatting present in each cell.

You can avoid all of this messy situation by using either one of the ISTEXT or ISNUMBER functions. The calculations you carry out will be wrong, and that can seriously affect the outcome of your analysis! When the selected cell range contains both text and numeric values, they will ignore the text contents and return the sum of the numeric values in the range.įor instance, if only one cell out of 200 cells has a number formatted as text then you will not spot it as the sum will ignore the text values and treat them as zero. The previous two methods discussed suffer from a crucial flaw. Check for Text with the ISTEXT or ISNUMBER Function When the contents are formatted as numbers, the status bar will show a Sum for the numbers in the range. If it shows a Count as it does in the image above, then you know the numbers are formatted as text. Check for Text with the Status Barįor this method, select the cells and check the type of operation carried out in the status bar. This way you know the numbers are not in the right format. The SUM function will return the aggregate of numeric values or the values in a cell range.īut when the SUM function is used on a range of text values it returns 0. Check for Text with the SUM Function = SUM ( value1, ) If you’ve changed the alignment format, you can refer to any of the following methods. However, it’s important to mention that you can only rely on this method insofar as you don’t change the alignment setting in your spreadsheet. This allows you to tell at a glance whether or not the cells have the correct formatting.Īll you have to do is look at your cells and check for the alignment of their contents. This method is the quickest and easiest means by which you can tell the cell formatting of your data.īy default, texts contents are aligned to the left while numeric values are aligned to the right. The following methods will help to check the formatting of the numbers in your dataset.

How to Tell When a Number is a Text Valueīefore you use any of the techniques to convert text to numbers, you first need to know that the numbers are in fact not numbers. Get your copy of the example workbook to follow along. In this post, you will learn how to check the formatting of your cell contents, and also how to convert numbers formatted as text to numeric values. Luckily, you have this article to help prevent any frustration. When numbers are formatted as text without you knowing about it, that’s can be a frustrating experience. Unfortunately, identifying this can be tricky. You might run into issues where the numbers in your dataset are formatted as text values. This post is going to show you how you can find numbers entered as text values and convert them to numbers in Google Sheets.
