Adding bytes, gigabytes, and megabytes in Excel
 

I have data in Excel that comes across as Megabytes and Gigabytes (i.e 500
MB, 3 GB, 200 BM, etc). How can I format this data so Excel recognizes these
as numbers and not text. I would like Excel to be able to add say 894 MB and
128 MB and come up with a total of 1 GB. Is this possible?

Thanks,

Answer: Adding bytes, gigabytes, and megabytes in Excel
 

1. Select the cells that contain the data you want to format.
2. Right-click on the selected cells and choose "Format Cells" from the context menu.
3. In the "Format Cells" dialog box, select the "Custom" category.
4. In the "Type" field, enter the following format code:
   Code:

   ---

   0.00,, "GB";0.00, "MB";0.00, "KB";0.00, "B"

   ---

5. Click "OK" to apply the formatting.

This format code will display the values in the cells as either Gigabytes, Megabytes, Kilobytes, or Bytes, depending on the size of the value. For example, a value of 500 MB will be displayed as 0.49 GB, and a value of 200 KB will be displayed as 0.00 GB.

Once you have formatted the cells, you can use Excel's built-in functions to add the values together. For example, to add 894 MB and 128 MB, you can use the following formula:

Assuming that the values are in cells A1 and A2, this formula will return a total of 1.02 GB.

Adding bytes, gigabytes, and megabytes in Excel
 

I set up a small table in M1:N3 with these values:

kB 1024
MB =1024*1024
GB =1024*1024*1024

and then with the following in A1:A3 :

500 MB
3 GB
200 kB

I put this formula in B1 and copied it down:

=VALUE(LEFT(A1,FIND(" ",A1)-1))*VLOOKUP(RIGHT(A1,LEN(A1)-FIND("
",A1)),M$1:N$3,2,0)

I got the following in B1:B3 :

524288000
3221225472
204800

which is the true number of bytes (note: it doesn't matter if you have
Mb, MB or mB as the VLOOKUP is not case sensitive). So, applying this
to your example (slightly corrected):

896 Mb 939524096
128 MB 134217728

and the sum of column B divided by N3 gives 1.

Hope this helps.

Pete



On Jul 2, 8:06 pm, NetTech wrote:
I have data in Excel that comes across as Megabytes and Gigabytes (i.e 500
MB, 3 GB, 200 BM, etc). How can I format this data so Excel recognizes these
as numbers and not text. I would like Excel to be able to add say 894 MB and
128 MB and come up with a total of 1 GB. Is this possible?

Thanks,

Adding bytes, gigabytes, and megabytes in Excel
 

Thank you so much for your quick response and taking the time to answer my
question. I think you have solved the 1st part of my question, but 2nd part
would be, how can I display the results in a format that is easy to read.

For instance, is there a formula that displays Gb's if my results are
greater than 5 gigabytes, but then displays Mb's if my results are less than
(or equal to) 5 gigabytes?

EXAMPLE 1
5583457484.8 (bytes) - I would like Excel to display 5.2 Gb's

EXAMPLE 2
4718592000 (bytes) - I would like Excel to display 4500 Mb's

"Pete_UK" wrote:

I set up a small table in M1:N3 with these values:

kB 1024
MB =1024*1024
GB =1024*1024*1024

and then with the following in A1:A3 :

500 MB
3 GB
200 kB

I put this formula in B1 and copied it down:

=VALUE(LEFT(A1,FIND(" ",A1)-1))*VLOOKUP(RIGHT(A1,LEN(A1)-FIND("
",A1)),M$1:N$3,2,0)

I got the following in B1:B3 :

524288000
3221225472
204800

which is the true number of bytes (note: it doesn't matter if you have
Mb, MB or mB as the VLOOKUP is not case sensitive). So, applying this
to your example (slightly corrected):

896 Mb 939524096
128 MB 134217728

and the sum of column B divided by N3 gives 1.

Hope this helps.

Pete



On Jul 2, 8:06 pm, NetTech wrote:
I have data in Excel that comes across as Megabytes and Gigabytes (i.e 500
MB, 3 GB, 200 BM, etc). How can I format this data so Excel recognizes these
as numbers and not text. I would like Excel to be able to add say 894 MB and
128 MB and come up with a total of 1 GB. Is this possible?

Thanks,

Adding bytes, gigabytes, and megabytes in Excel
 

Assuming your value is in B17 (my test cell), you can use this formula
to get what you want:

=IF(B17=5*2^30,TEXT(B17/2^30,"0.0 Gb"),TEXT(B17/2^20,"0 \Mb"))

Just change the references from B17 (3 of them) to suit your data. You
can copy it down if you have a number of values in the column.

Hope this helps.

Pete

On Jul 3, 2:34 pm, NetTech wrote:
Thank you so much for your quick response and taking the time to answer my
question. I think you have solved the 1st part of my question, but 2nd part
would be, how can I display the results in a format that is easy to read.

For instance, is there a formula that displays Gb's if my results are
greater than 5 gigabytes, but then displays Mb's if my results are less than
(or equal to) 5 gigabytes?

EXAMPLE 1
5583457484.8 (bytes) - I would like Excel to display 5.2 Gb's

EXAMPLE 2
4718592000 (bytes) - I would like Excel to display 4500 Mb's



"Pete_UK" wrote:
I set up a small table in M1:N3 with these values:

kB 1024
MB =1024*1024
GB =1024*1024*1024

and then with the following in A1:A3 :

500 MB
3 GB
200 kB

I put this formula in B1 and copied it down:

=VALUE(LEFT(A1,FIND(" ",A1)-1))*VLOOKUP(RIGHT(A1,LEN(A1)-FIND("
",A1)),M$1:N$3,2,0)

I got the following in B1:B3 :

524288000
3221225472
204800

which is the true number of bytes (note: it doesn't matter if you have
Mb, MB or mB as the VLOOKUP is not case sensitive). So, applying this
to your example (slightly corrected):

896 Mb 939524096
128 MB 134217728

and the sum of column B divided by N3 gives 1.

Hope this helps.

Pete

On Jul 2, 8:06 pm, NetTech wrote:
I have data in Excel that comes across as Megabytes and Gigabytes (i.e 500
MB, 3 GB, 200 BM, etc). How can I format this data so Excel recognizes these
as numbers and not text. I would like Excel to be able to add say 894 MB and
128 MB and come up with a total of 1 GB. Is this possible?

Thanks,- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -