If you have a cell A2, and you don't know whether the cell is text or number, the functions =ISTEXT(A2) and =ISNUMBER(A2) will return TRUE or FALSE as appropriate.
If you've got text and you want to convert to numbers without retyping, there are a number of techniques which sometimes work. Data/ Text to columns might work, as might adding zero with Edit/ Paste special/ Add (or multiplying by 1 in equivalent manner). You may be able to get rid of some of the spurious spaces or non--printing characters with TRIM() and CLEAN() functions.
--
David Biddulph
"JohnH" wrote in message ...
Is their no way to change text to numbers other than re-enter?
" =ISTEXT() and =ISNUMBER() can help you to tell," I don't understand this.
Thanks
John
"David Biddulph" <groups [at] biddulph.org.uk wrote in message ...
It looks as if you originally had numbers in some cells and text in others. Spaces and other non-printing characters can cause values to be treated as text when you intended them to be numbers. If you've got default alignment a tell-tale sign is that text is usually aligned to the left and numbers normally to the right, and that is what the example you posted looks like. =ISTEXT() and =ISNUMBER() can help you to tell, and another symptom is that if you try to change the number format (such as changing the number of decimal points displayed), then it won't affect text cells.
On the sorting question, select the range you want to sort, choosing the rows & columns you're interested in, then Data/ Sort/ Sort by whichever column. You'll have to choose between ascending and descending, but I think you'll find that descending goes from highest to lowest, not lowest to highest as you've described it.
--
David Biddulph
Rowing web pages at
http://www.biddulph.org.uk/
"JohnH" wrote in message ...
I fixed it by copying the entries individually to each cell. Why would that be????
Another question: How do I Arrange a column in desecending order (lowest to highest value while retaining the corresponding value in the next column?
Thanks
John