Excel numbers stored as text fiasco

[ToasterGhost]

My formula didn't work because the numbers are stored as text.

I don't care why it's like this.   I don't want to know your excuses.

I see from the history drop down this has been counter productive for people for years.

It's like really bad shareware!  MS is dumb. 

The warning "numbers are stored as text" shows with one cell selected but not with multiple cells selected.  Now I have to figure out where the stupid option is.  NOT PRODUCTIVE!

When I change these cells from text to numbers, they should become numbers!

"Text as numbers" is complete insanity!

[#2]

@ToasterGhost 

I don't care why it's like this.   I don't want to know your excuses.

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Why should we excuse?

It is simply your fault. Either you formatted the cells as text or you imported data and choose not to convert the text numbers to real numbers.

PS: Very 'creative' tag.

[#3]

Excuse: You did it wrong!

Very funny.

When the data type is set to number, it should be number.

If MS is going to have numbers that are not numbers, it needs to be 1) very clear and 2) easy to mass repair and 3) get it's head checked.

[#4]

@ToasterGhost I agree, Excel has some infuriating counter productive ways it does things, my favorite is how it cant figure out that 45+23 is a formula I want to evaluate, vs forcing me to remember to type +45+23 every time.  when would you ever want it to just show as text?  

regards your problem, today i imported a file from Verizon for data usage and all the numbers came over as text, with that little exclamation point asking if i want to convert to numbers.  fine, but not cool for all the hundreds of numbers i would have to convert.  and copy/paste values doesn't do it either.

turns out that if you select all the errant numbers, then go to the first one in the selection, that exclamation point shows up, and selecting "convert to number" works on all selected at once.  

seemed to work for me, maybe you have to only select bad cells?

[#5]

@jxwalter10Selecting multiple cells in a row helps a lot.

Ctrl-Click fails - when selecting multiple cells that are not consecutive,  the exclamation goes away.

I tried "ignore",  but it's temporary - after resort table, the exclamation comes back.

Also, by default, Excel tries to convert text to dates!!

It tripped on 5-77... but not the others... bizarre.

I solved the formatting problem(s)!!

Credit to Google -> https://allthings.how/how-to-convert-text-to-date-in-excel/

The sheer quantity of Googles people do every day to figure out Microsoft's nonsense must be astronomical.  

Microsoft should fix the square wheels;  instead it focuses on confusing grandma with w11.