"Candida" wrote:
this works for single digits like '45632 however
I have some more complex numbers such as
'01.02354.321 or '01.54211 and this doesn't
seem to work for those numbers.

But those should be left as text. What problem does that cause for you?

If the problem is that text is left-justified by default, change cell
Alignment under Format Cells, setting Horizontal to Right.

Otherwise, what problem does the apostrophe cause for you?

The leading apostrophe is transparent; it is not considered part of the
value. For example, you would write IF(A1="01.02354.321",...), not
IF(A1="'01.02354.321",...).

The leading apostrophe is just special syntax that tells Excel not to
consider the numeric text as a number, which should be what you want.

Treating them as numbers can create new problems. For example, leading
zeros go away and long numbers might be displayed differently unless you
change the cell format. And very long "numbers" (more than 15 significant
digits) might be changed irrevocably.


----- original message -----

"Candida" wrote:

this works for single digits like '45632 however I have some more complex
numbers such as '01.02354.321 or '01.54211 and this doesn't seem to work for
those numbers.
Please help.

"FSt1" wrote:

hi
1 way..
enter a 1(one) in a cell off to the side. copy it. then select the cell with
the apostropheed number. paste special multiply.
that should get rid of the apostrophe

regards
FSt1

"Candida" wrote:

Please advise how I can convert a number that comes over as '40593 from our
Italian firm. How do I take the ' off of the number. I have 3000 rows of
numbers that came through like that Please help.