find a ?, text acting as number, mysterious single quote
 

I have a worksheet that I have CAREFULLY typed all of the cells as text. The
worksheet has about 15,000 rows and 15 columns. In working with it, several
rather mysterious things have been found:
1. I want to find ?'s in the text and replace a few of them with another
character. I used the search function under edit and entered ? in the search
field. The result is that the function goes to the first cell A1, then A2,
and one at a time to the end of the row, and then to B1, and so on. None of
these cells contain a ?. What is going on here. How do I find a ?

2. I enter the string week 1 in a cell and want to replicate the string in
the following ten cells beneath the original entry. I select the cell with
the text week 1. position my cursor at the lower right corner (the cross hair
symbol comes up) and dray down 10 cells expecting the text to be replicated.
Instead the cells become week 2,
week 3, week 4, etc. This unwanted action occurs whenever the numeric text
is either the last or first string in the original cell. So the string 1 week
is replicated as 2 week, 3 week, etc. It also occurs if the original string
is week1 or 1week (no blanks around the numric string). How do I prevent this
unwanted action?

3. Some of the data in this worksheet comes from other excel spreadsheets.
The data was exported into a tab delimited file and then imported into this
worksheet. For some of the data, the imported text has a single quote
prefixed to the text string. If I select a cell and the contents appear in
the equation bar at the top of the page the single quote is clearly visible.
I can position my cursor and delete the quote and the string moves left a
bit. So at least to me, the text is real. However, if I print a portion of
the worksheet where the prefixed strings are found, the single quote does not
appear in printed data. After deleting the quote there does not seem to be
any negative impact on subsequent activity. What is happening here?

--
Thanks for your help - jjk98

find a ?, text acting as number, mysterious single quote
 

Question 1
? is a wild card symbol used for any character so prefix the ? with ~ which
will say to the Find to use the next character as a litteral as in ~?

Question 2.
Hold the Ctrl key pressed while you drag down.

Question 3.
A single quote tells Xl that the following entry should be treated as text.
As you found out it has no effect on printing.

--
HTH

Sandy
In Perth, the ancient capital of Scotland
and the crowning place of kings


Replace @mailinator.com with @tiscali.co.uk


"jjk98" wrote in message
...
I have a worksheet that I have CAREFULLY typed all of the cells as text.
The
worksheet has about 15,000 rows and 15 columns. In working with it,
several
rather mysterious things have been found:
1. I want to find ?'s in the text and replace a few of them with another
character. I used the search function under edit and entered ? in the
search
field. The result is that the function goes to the first cell A1, then A2,
and one at a time to the end of the row, and then to B1, and so on. None
of
these cells contain a ?. What is going on here. How do I find a ?

2. I enter the string week 1 in a cell and want to replicate the string in
the following ten cells beneath the original entry. I select the cell with
the text week 1. position my cursor at the lower right corner (the cross
hair
symbol comes up) and dray down 10 cells expecting the text to be
replicated.
Instead the cells become week 2,
week 3, week 4, etc. This unwanted action occurs whenever the numeric text
is either the last or first string in the original cell. So the string 1
week
is replicated as 2 week, 3 week, etc. It also occurs if the original
string
is week1 or 1week (no blanks around the numric string). How do I prevent
this
unwanted action?

3. Some of the data in this worksheet comes from other excel spreadsheets.
The data was exported into a tab delimited file and then imported into
this
worksheet. For some of the data, the imported text has a single quote
prefixed to the text string. If I select a cell and the contents appear in
the equation bar at the top of the page the single quote is clearly
visible.
I can position my cursor and delete the quote and the string moves left a
bit. So at least to me, the text is real. However, if I print a portion of
the worksheet where the prefixed strings are found, the single quote does
not
appear in printed data. After deleting the quote there does not seem to be
any negative impact on subsequent activity. What is happening here?

--
Thanks for your help - jjk98

find a ?, text acting as number, mysterious single quote
 

Hi,

1. When you try to found a "?" excel understand that you do not know (or
have a doubt) and return every data, the same thing will happen if you try to
found the "*".

2. copy and paste instead of dray down;

3. did you see the function ?

hth
--
regards from Brazil
Thanks in advance for your feedback.
Marcelo



"jjk98" escreveu:

I have a worksheet that I have CAREFULLY typed all of the cells as text. The
worksheet has about 15,000 rows and 15 columns. In working with it, several
rather mysterious things have been found:
1. I want to find ?'s in the text and replace a few of them with another
character. I used the search function under edit and entered ? in the search
field. The result is that the function goes to the first cell A1, then A2,
and one at a time to the end of the row, and then to B1, and so on. None of
these cells contain a ?. What is going on here. How do I find a ?

2. I enter the string week 1 in a cell and want to replicate the string in
the following ten cells beneath the original entry. I select the cell with
the text week 1. position my cursor at the lower right corner (the cross hair
symbol comes up) and dray down 10 cells expecting the text to be replicated.
Instead the cells become week 2,
week 3, week 4, etc. This unwanted action occurs whenever the numeric text
is either the last or first string in the original cell. So the string 1 week
is replicated as 2 week, 3 week, etc. It also occurs if the original string
is week1 or 1week (no blanks around the numric string). How do I prevent this
unwanted action?

3. Some of the data in this worksheet comes from other excel spreadsheets.
The data was exported into a tab delimited file and then imported into this
worksheet. For some of the data, the imported text has a single quote
prefixed to the text string. If I select a cell and the contents appear in
the equation bar at the top of the page the single quote is clearly visible.
I can position my cursor and delete the quote and the string moves left a
bit. So at least to me, the text is real. However, if I print a portion of
the worksheet where the prefixed strings are found, the single quote does not
appear in printed data. After deleting the quote there does not seem to be
any negative impact on subsequent activity. What is happening here?

--
Thanks for your help - jjk98

find a ?, text acting as number, mysterious single quote
 

Many thanks for the VERY QUICK help. How would anyone ever find these answers
in the Excel "Help"? And I really looked everywhere,


--
Thanks for your help - jjk98


"jjk98" wrote:

I have a worksheet that I have CAREFULLY typed all of the cells as text. The
worksheet has about 15,000 rows and 15 columns. In working with it, several
rather mysterious things have been found:
1. I want to find ?'s in the text and replace a few of them with another
character. I used the search function under edit and entered ? in the search
field. The result is that the function goes to the first cell A1, then A2,
and one at a time to the end of the row, and then to B1, and so on. None of
these cells contain a ?. What is going on here. How do I find a ?

2. I enter the string week 1 in a cell and want to replicate the string in
the following ten cells beneath the original entry. I select the cell with
the text week 1. position my cursor at the lower right corner (the cross hair
symbol comes up) and dray down 10 cells expecting the text to be replicated.
Instead the cells become week 2,
week 3, week 4, etc. This unwanted action occurs whenever the numeric text
is either the last or first string in the original cell. So the string 1 week
is replicated as 2 week, 3 week, etc. It also occurs if the original string
is week1 or 1week (no blanks around the numric string). How do I prevent this
unwanted action?

3. Some of the data in this worksheet comes from other excel spreadsheets.
The data was exported into a tab delimited file and then imported into this
worksheet. For some of the data, the imported text has a single quote
prefixed to the text string. If I select a cell and the contents appear in
the equation bar at the top of the page the single quote is clearly visible.
I can position my cursor and delete the quote and the string moves left a
bit. So at least to me, the text is real. However, if I print a portion of
the worksheet where the prefixed strings are found, the single quote does not
appear in printed data. After deleting the quote there does not seem to be
any negative impact on subsequent activity. What is happening here?

--
Thanks for your help - jjk98

find a ?, text acting as number, mysterious single quote
 

MS Help is not the best but in XL97 I find:

Q1.
Click on the ? button in the Find Dialog box then on the "Find what:" window

Q2.
Help Move or copy data Copy data within a row or column

Q3.
I don't find it anywhere but the *best* place I have found for finding out
*anything* about XL is to read these newsgroups regularly.


--
HTH

Sandy
In Perth, the ancient capital of Scotland
and the crowning place of kings


Replace @mailinator.com with @tiscali.co.uk


"jjk98" wrote in message
...
Many thanks for the VERY QUICK help. How would anyone ever find these
answers
in the Excel "Help"? And I really looked everywhere,


--
Thanks for your help - jjk98


"jjk98" wrote:

I have a worksheet that I have CAREFULLY typed all of the cells as text.
The
worksheet has about 15,000 rows and 15 columns. In working with it,
several
rather mysterious things have been found:
1. I want to find ?'s in the text and replace a few of them with another
character. I used the search function under edit and entered ? in the
search
field. The result is that the function goes to the first cell A1, then
A2,
and one at a time to the end of the row, and then to B1, and so on. None
of
these cells contain a ?. What is going on here. How do I find a ?

2. I enter the string week 1 in a cell and want to replicate the string
in
the following ten cells beneath the original entry. I select the cell
with
the text week 1. position my cursor at the lower right corner (the cross
hair
symbol comes up) and dray down 10 cells expecting the text to be
replicated.
Instead the cells become week 2,
week 3, week 4, etc. This unwanted action occurs whenever the numeric
text
is either the last or first string in the original cell. So the string 1
week
is replicated as 2 week, 3 week, etc. It also occurs if the original
string
is week1 or 1week (no blanks around the numric string). How do I prevent
this
unwanted action?

3. Some of the data in this worksheet comes from other excel
spreadsheets.
The data was exported into a tab delimited file and then imported into
this
worksheet. For some of the data, the imported text has a single quote
prefixed to the text string. If I select a cell and the contents appear
in
the equation bar at the top of the page the single quote is clearly
visible.
I can position my cursor and delete the quote and the string moves left a
bit. So at least to me, the text is real. However, if I print a portion
of
the worksheet where the prefixed strings are found, the single quote does
not
appear in printed data. After deleting the quote there does not seem to
be
any negative impact on subsequent activity. What is happening here?

--
Thanks for your help - jjk98

find a ?, text acting as number, mysterious single quote
 

Look in help under wildcard characters.

"jjk98" wrote:

Many thanks for the VERY QUICK help. How would anyone ever find these answers
in the Excel "Help"? And I really looked everywhere,


--
Thanks for your help - jjk98


"jjk98" wrote:

I have a worksheet that I have CAREFULLY typed all of the cells as text. The
worksheet has about 15,000 rows and 15 columns. In working with it, several
rather mysterious things have been found:
1. I want to find ?'s in the text and replace a few of them with another
character. I used the search function under edit and entered ? in the search
field. The result is that the function goes to the first cell A1, then A2,
and one at a time to the end of the row, and then to B1, and so on. None of
these cells contain a ?. What is going on here. How do I find a ?

2. I enter the string week 1 in a cell and want to replicate the string in
the following ten cells beneath the original entry. I select the cell with
the text week 1. position my cursor at the lower right corner (the cross hair
symbol comes up) and dray down 10 cells expecting the text to be replicated.
Instead the cells become week 2,
week 3, week 4, etc. This unwanted action occurs whenever the numeric text
is either the last or first string in the original cell. So the string 1 week
is replicated as 2 week, 3 week, etc. It also occurs if the original string
is week1 or 1week (no blanks around the numric string). How do I prevent this
unwanted action?

3. Some of the data in this worksheet comes from other excel spreadsheets.
The data was exported into a tab delimited file and then imported into this
worksheet. For some of the data, the imported text has a single quote
prefixed to the text string. If I select a cell and the contents appear in
the equation bar at the top of the page the single quote is clearly visible.
I can position my cursor and delete the quote and the string moves left a
bit. So at least to me, the text is real. However, if I print a portion of
the worksheet where the prefixed strings are found, the single quote does not
appear in printed data. After deleting the quote there does not seem to be
any negative impact on subsequent activity. What is happening here?

--
Thanks for your help - jjk98