Forum Discussion
Removing data type from cell
I applied the "stocks" data type to a cell. How do I remove the data type from the cell so that I can use the cell for plain text without Excel interpreting my entry as a ticker symbol?
I had the same issue with converting to text not working as soon as I tried to change what was in the cell. This work-around worked for me.
1.) Go ahead and do that first step already mentioned: Select the cell, right-click and choose Data Type=>Convert to Text.
2.) Go to an unused cell in the spreadsheet, select it, right-click and choose Format Cells. Then, on the Number tab, choose Text.
3.) In that cell, type the text you wanted in the original cell, then cut and paste it into the original cell. For me, that finally worked. Excel doesn't force it back to the Stocks data type. Hope this helps.
- This works, but not a great fix for 100s of 1,000s of rows. 😕 MS needs to fix this.
Completely agree. It's a kludgey, clunky band-aid, but I just thought I'd share for the users who might find it useful until 2047 when MS gets around to fixing it.
brianmasson Select the cells, right-click and then Data Type, Convert to Text.
Riny_van_Eekelen This does not work. It does convert the current content of the cell to text, but when I delete the text and try to enter something else, Excel interprets it as a stock symbol. In other words, it seems the cell is permanently defined as a "stock" type cell.
brianmasson Works for me. Then I don't know what's happening. Sorry!
- It doesn't work in 365. Nothing gets rid of the datatype. I'm having the same problem with Geography. I don't get the "datatype" in the dropdown. I went in and changed datatype in the menu to text -- didn't fix it. I tried copying to a different row and pasting as 123 text, didn't work. I tried using a formula to copy from that cell, didn't work.
