Hi, and thanks.

I'm using Excel 2000. I didn't see an "evaluate function." I don't
think I quite followed your instructions, or I did follow them and it
didn't work. Either way, I'm a little confused.

There are only about 11 fractions I need to be concerned with. I'm
wondering if I created a table and used Vlookup to convert the long
number string to the fraction I need--would work?

I'm sure there is an easy solution.

I appreciate the advice.

On Sun, 9 Dec 2007 09:19:16 -0000, "Roger Govier"
<roger@technology4unospamdotcodotuk wrote:

Hi

The problem is that Excel is seeing these as dates.
9/2 is 02 Sep and it is showing as the serial number of the date 39327

It would need to be =9/2 for Excel to interpret it in the way that you wish.
If you made the column a Text column, before copying data to it, then it
should come through as '9/2 and display as 9/2.

You can convert this to 4.5 if you do the following.
Suppose the column with the data is column C, and that column D is blank.
InsertNameDefine Name Evaluate Refers to =EVALUATE($C1)

In D1 enter =Evaluate and copy down.
Then copy column Dplace cursor on C1Paste SpecialValues to fix the data.
Column D can then be deleted