This formula will remove the first character regardless
of what it is, so be careful not to apply it to cell's
that don't have the < in front.

Assuming the first cell is A2, in cell B2 type:
=RIGHT(A2,LEN(A2)-1)
This removes the 1st character regardless of what it is.
Then you could copy & paste special over the original
entry.

Hope that helps!

-----Original Message-----
in Excel 2002, I have a column of data that includes
a "<" symbol, followed
by numbers. I want to get rid of the "<", and keep the
number in that cell.
The numbers vary throughout the column. any help?
.