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Colin59's avatar
Colin59
Copper Contributor
Jun 24, 2022
Solved

Excel - problems converting string containing numbers and text to a number

Hi, I have a spreadsheet containing hundreds of rows with a column formatted as general which contain numbers and text, e.g. 1.45 TB, 276 GB etc. therefore preventing any math operations (sum, avg., ...
excel
Excel on Mac
Formulas and Functions
Colin59's avatar
Colin59
Copper Contributor
Jun 24, 2022
I have just tried using substitute a second time to replace the . with a , and then, in another column, =1*value(field with substituted separator) and that produces a number - finally. However there must be a more elegant way of doing this, without having to introduce three extra columns for each on I have to convert. The third column (the one containing the substituted decimal separator) is formatted as number. The first column (number + text) is General, the second is Text.
  • Lorenzo's avatar
    Lorenzo
    Silver Contributor
    Jun 24, 2022

    Hi Colin59 

     

    If you always have a B (MB, GB, TB, PB) as below

    in B2:

    =VALUE(
    SUBSTITUTE(
        LEFT(SUBSTITUTE(A2," ",""), SEARCH("?B",SUBSTITUTE(A2," ","")) -1),
        ".", ","
    )
)

     

    If still not good please post a representative sample of your Text values

    • Colin59's avatar
      Colin59
      Copper Contributor
      Jun 28, 2022

      Lorenzo 

      My Excel refused to accept your formula, even if I reduced it to a single line. :o(

      I am stuck on Excel 16.43 (20110804) due to my OS not being upgradeable on this hardware. However, since the substitute commands work when they are applied individually to the column data I would have thought that formula should work. My three-extra-columns workaround does work though, it is just a trifle annoying.

      • Lorenzo's avatar
        Lorenzo
        Silver Contributor
        Jun 28, 2022

        Hi Colin59 

         

        I'm not a Mac user and have no idea at all what 16.43 means in term of Excel version (2010, 2013...2021 or 365). Just in case the VALUE function would not be avail. on 16.43 could you try the following?

        =1*(SUBSTITUTE(LEFT(SUBSTITUTE(A2," ",""), SEARCH("?B",SUBSTITUTE(A2," ","")) -1),".", ","))

         

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