Not very sure on your intents,
but you might be thinking along these lines

Set-up the reference table in say, Sheet2,
cols A and B, from row1 down

Y 2
N 5
Z 9
etc

Then in Sheet1,
if you input letters* in say, A1:A3

Z
Y
N

*assumed case-insensitive

you could put in B1: =VLOOKUP(A1,Sheet2!A:B,2,0)

and copy B1 down to return the numbers
corresponding to the letters in col A

Z 9
Y 2
N 5

Alternatively, if you're entering single alphabets in col A,
then putting in B1: =CODE(A1)
and copying B1 down will also drive out numbers
corresponding to the alphas
(this time, it's case-sensitive, Y = 89, y = 121)

A - Z yields : 65 - 90
a - z yields : 97 - 122

--
Rgds
Max
xl 97
---
GMT+8, 1° 22' N 103° 45' E
xdemechanik <atyahoo<dotcom
----
"Alex" wrote in message
...
How do I enter a formula in a cell so that letters= a number i.e Y=5, N=2.