Yes but this also removes dashes in the names of people who have hyphenated
last names, it removes those dashes. So how to you get over this one besides
copying that column to a new sheet, then do the Find, Replace to remove
dashes and copy it back to orignal sheet?

"bj" wrote:

The cells are probably text.
select the cells and use find replace (find dash and replace with nothing)
(note the dash could be several types, and your best best is to copy one of
the dashes and paste it into the find box.)
the cells will probably still be text nomatter what the format says. so
enter 1 in a cell and copy it. select all of the cells with the SSNs and
paste special multiply

"Mpls501sMan" wrote:

I have a file that has the dash in the social security number of the people
in the spreadsheet. I want to remove the dash without having to enter the SS
# again. I have tried the format but all that does is apply a format to the
cell. When I remove the format the dashes still remain?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!