As long as the entry *always* follows the this pattern:

number<spacetext

=H17*LEFT(J17,FIND(" ",J17))

--
Biff
Microsoft Excel MVP


"jatman" wrote in message
...
i am using the following formula

=J17*H17

the problem is J17 is imported from another file, and that always contains
a
number value along with some text value (ex. 5 CS). when the formula is
calcuated, it returns #VALUE!

can the formula be written so that it looks at the number value only and
ignores the text?

thank you,

jat