Forum Discussion
Impossible to sum numbers in Excel
HansVogelaar Thank you for your help. Link to sheet below. I'm simply trying to sum one column.
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/84rm3t14qzhc2jdntwzcn/SHEET-WON-T-SUM.xlsx?rlkey=9i16ssxf12ilrim0e4g70lc0b&st=1jouiyey&dl=0
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/84rm3t14qzhc2jdntwzcn/SHEET-WON-T-SUM.xlsx?rlkey=9i16ssxf12ilrim0e4g70lc0b&st=dhrrlx4h&dl=0
- HansVogelaarOct 09, 2024MVP
Thanks. The values in column D are text values although they look like currency amounts.
Select the values.
Press Ctrl+H to activate the Replace dialog.
Enter € in the 'Find what' box and leave the 'Replace with' box empty.
Click 'Replace All'.
Next, clear the 'Find what' box and paste ‑ into it (warning: this is not the standard minus sign, it is a non-breaking hyphen!)
Enter a standard - in the 'Replace with' box.
Click 'Replace All'.
The numbers should now sum correctly.
- terrylooOct 09, 2024Copper Contributor
@davidmgahan
Hello David,
I suggest you use the method I mentioned earlier.
Open your file on excel desktop.
Save your file as a tabulation separated txt.You will see that your file has the numbers saved with those odd little symbols.
CTRL + ACTRL + H
Find " replace with (nothing)Find ? replace with (nothing)
Once it's done, do the following:
CTRL + A
CopyOpen Excel
Paste as values.
It worked for me- davidmgahanOct 09, 2024Copper ContributorHi Terryloo,
Thank you for your help.
I tried that but to no avail.
Can you confirm I should save the file as a type "Text (tab delimited .txt" file? or can you tell me the extension I should see in the save as options?
When I saved it as as .txt file, there were only ? in from of the numbers but no " symbols and when I did the step 'replace with nothing' all the data disappeared from the sheet.
Thanks again for helping.
David
- davidmgahanOct 09, 2024Copper Contributor
HansVogelaar Thank you for your reply.
I've tried that but I am messing up somehwere, I think.
I am unsure how to do one step in your instructions:
Next, clear the 'Find what' box and paste ‑ into it (warning: this is not the standard minus sign, it is a non-breaking hyphen!)
Can you tell me how to do that?
(I've tried pasting a non-breaking hyphen symbol into a blank cell and then copy / pasting that into the 'find what' box and continued to the last step in your instructions (replace with a standard minus in the 'replace with' box but that doesn't seem to work for me).
- HansVogelaarOct 09, 2024MVP
You can select and copy the minus sign in one of the cells, then paste it into the Replace dialog.