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#1
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Importing data into excel
Could someone help me with a data format issue. I am importing student
numbers from a university database which come into my sheet as: '04152365221 This will not speak to older data (from last month!) which is of the format: 04152365221 I have tried: Removing the inverted comma. Doing the multiply by 1 Changing both to General format Have used the Text to Columns feature. I can't seem to achieve a common ground. It only works if I physically retype each number in again. This is really not a viable option. Any help would be greatly appreciated regards Martina |
#2
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i dont know whether you can try this
=SUBSTITUTE(A1,"'","",1) experiment on this ================= Martina wrote in message ... Could someone help me with a data format issue. I am importing student numbers from a university database which come into my sheet as: '04152365221 This will not speak to older data (from last month!) which is of the format: 04152365221 I have tried: Removing the inverted comma. Doing the multiply by 1 Changing both to General format Have used the Text to Columns feature. I can't seem to achieve a common ground. It only works if I physically retype each number in again. This is really not a viable option. Any help would be greatly appreciated regards Martina |
#3
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would it be difficult to modify your formulas to convert the number to text?
For example if A1 = 04152365221 (without the single quote) you could refer to it by TEXT(A1,"00000000000") instead of just A1. As a generic example, VLOOKUP(A1, Arg2, Arg3, Arg4) would be VLOOKUP(TEXT(A1,"00000000000"), Arg2, Arg3, Arg4). "Martina" wrote: Could someone help me with a data format issue. I am importing student numbers from a university database which come into my sheet as: '04152365221 This will not speak to older data (from last month!) which is of the format: 04152365221 I have tried: Removing the inverted comma. Doing the multiply by 1 Changing both to General format Have used the Text to Columns feature. I can't seem to achieve a common ground. It only works if I physically retype each number in again. This is really not a viable option. Any help would be greatly appreciated regards Martina |
#4
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Hi!
'04152365221 This will not speak to older data (from last month!) which is of the format: 04152365221 What format is that? Is it formatted as TEXT so it keeps the leading 0 or is is a custom number format 00000000000? Could be the imported data has unseen characters such as spaces, line feeds, line breaks, etc. If both values have the same format try comparing the length of each string. If this data is imported monthly, why would the format change from month to month? Biff "Martina" wrote in message ... Could someone help me with a data format issue. I am importing student numbers from a university database which come into my sheet as: '04152365221 This will not speak to older data (from last month!) which is of the format: 04152365221 I have tried: Removing the inverted comma. Doing the multiply by 1 Changing both to General format Have used the Text to Columns feature. I can't seem to achieve a common ground. It only works if I physically retype each number in again. This is really not a viable option. Any help would be greatly appreciated regards Martina |
#5
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Hi Biff,
Thank you for taking the time to consider my problem. The format does not change monthly, the database section has had a recent system change. When I needed the information the inverted commas were present next to the student numbers. After the system change,one month later the system has done away with the inverted commas leaving me in a pickle. I believe the system is now stable. It could be unseen characters, how do I compare the length of the string. To me they look the same except for the inverted comma. How do I tell if it is formatted as text? I assume that is what the inverted comma means. I think the system will stay now without the inverted commas so I need to get my data into this format. kind regards Martina Biff wrote: Hi! '04152365221 This will not speak to older data (from last month!) which is of the format: 04152365221 What format is that? Is it formatted as TEXT so it keeps the leading 0 or is is a custom number format 00000000000? Could be the imported data has unseen characters such as spaces, line feeds, line breaks, etc. If both values have the same format try comparing the length of each string. If this data is imported monthly, why would the format change from month to month? Biff "Martina" wrote in message ... Could someone help me with a data format issue. I am importing student numbers from a university database which come into my sheet as: '04152365221 This will not speak to older data (from last month!) which is of the format: 04152365221 I have tried: Removing the inverted comma. Doing the multiply by 1 Changing both to General format Have used the Text to Columns feature. I can't seem to achieve a common ground. It only works if I physically retype each number in again. This is really not a viable option. Any help would be greatly appreciated regards Martina |
#6
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Hi!
Is the "inverted comma" visible in the cell or does it only show up in the formula bar? If it only shows up in the formula bar then that means the value is TEXT. If it is visible in the cell then you could try EditReplace. Select the range of cells that have that inverted comma. GotoEditReplace Find what: ' Replace with: nothing, leave this blank Replace All How do I tell if it is formatted as text? Unless you have changed formats, TEXT will default align left and NUMBERS default align right. To compare length: Suppose the value with the inverted comma is in cell A1: =LEN(A1) And compare that result to the length of the other value. If the inverted comma is just a text format apostrophe, that will not be counted in the length. Biff "Molly" wrote in message ... Hi Biff, Thank you for taking the time to consider my problem. The format does not change monthly, the database section has had a recent system change. When I needed the information the inverted commas were present next to the student numbers. After the system change,one month later the system has done away with the inverted commas leaving me in a pickle. I believe the system is now stable. It could be unseen characters, how do I compare the length of the string. To me they look the same except for the inverted comma. How do I tell if it is formatted as text? I assume that is what the inverted comma means. I think the system will stay now without the inverted commas so I need to get my data into this format. kind regards Martina Biff wrote: Hi! '04152365221 This will not speak to older data (from last month!) which is of the format: 04152365221 What format is that? Is it formatted as TEXT so it keeps the leading 0 or is is a custom number format 00000000000? Could be the imported data has unseen characters such as spaces, line feeds, line breaks, etc. If both values have the same format try comparing the length of each string. If this data is imported monthly, why would the format change from month to month? Biff "Martina" wrote in message ... Could someone help me with a data format issue. I am importing student numbers from a university database which come into my sheet as: '04152365221 This will not speak to older data (from last month!) which is of the format: 04152365221 I have tried: Removing the inverted comma. Doing the multiply by 1 Changing both to General format Have used the Text to Columns feature. I can't seem to achieve a common ground. It only works if I physically retype each number in again. This is really not a viable option. Any help would be greatly appreciated regards Martina |
#7
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Hi Biff,
Thank you. This is why I have learnt so much from this newsgroup!! a)The inverted comma appears in the cell b) I did a find and replace but no luck. c)The length function however showed me that the new database system places an extra space at the end of the number. d)At least now I know I'm not going mad. As soon as I removed the extra space the sheets were talking to eachother. If I can reformat my data in this way perhaps they will talk. Thanks again. Martina "Biff" wrote: Hi! Is the "inverted comma" visible in the cell or does it only show up in the formula bar? If it only shows up in the formula bar then that means the value is TEXT. If it is visible in the cell then you could try EditReplace. Select the range of cells that have that inverted comma. GotoEditReplace Find what: ' Replace with: nothing, leave this blank Replace All How do I tell if it is formatted as text? Unless you have changed formats, TEXT will default align left and NUMBERS default align right. To compare length: Suppose the value with the inverted comma is in cell A1: =LEN(A1) And compare that result to the length of the other value. If the inverted comma is just a text format apostrophe, that will not be counted in the length. Biff "Molly" wrote in message ... Hi Biff, Thank you for taking the time to consider my problem. The format does not change monthly, the database section has had a recent system change. When I needed the information the inverted commas were present next to the student numbers. After the system change,one month later the system has done away with the inverted commas leaving me in a pickle. I believe the system is now stable. It could be unseen characters, how do I compare the length of the string. To me they look the same except for the inverted comma. How do I tell if it is formatted as text? I assume that is what the inverted comma means. I think the system will stay now without the inverted commas so I need to get my data into this format. kind regards Martina Biff wrote: Hi! '04152365221 This will not speak to older data (from last month!) which is of the format: 04152365221 What format is that? Is it formatted as TEXT so it keeps the leading 0 or is is a custom number format 00000000000? Could be the imported data has unseen characters such as spaces, line feeds, line breaks, etc. If both values have the same format try comparing the length of each string. If this data is imported monthly, why would the format change from month to month? Biff "Martina" wrote in message ... Could someone help me with a data format issue. I am importing student numbers from a university database which come into my sheet as: '04152365221 This will not speak to older data (from last month!) which is of the format: 04152365221 I have tried: Removing the inverted comma. Doing the multiply by 1 Changing both to General format Have used the Text to Columns feature. I can't seem to achieve a common ground. It only works if I physically retype each number in again. This is really not a viable option. Any help would be greatly appreciated regards Martina |
#8
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Hi Biff,
I found it!! The entry is a text entry followed by a small circle which I could only see when I brought it into Word. It is like a degree symbol as in degrees centigrade. One of these invisibly follows each number. This was enough to send me around the twist!!!!! 0416685667ΒΊ Thanks again Martina "Martina" wrote: Hi Biff, Thank you. This is why I have learnt so much from this newsgroup!! a)The inverted comma appears in the cell b) I did a find and replace but no luck. c)The length function however showed me that the new database system places an extra space at the end of the number. d)At least now I know I'm not going mad. As soon as I removed the extra space the sheets were talking to eachother. If I can reformat my data in this way perhaps they will talk. Thanks again. Martina "Biff" wrote: Hi! Is the "inverted comma" visible in the cell or does it only show up in the formula bar? If it only shows up in the formula bar then that means the value is TEXT. If it is visible in the cell then you could try EditReplace. Select the range of cells that have that inverted comma. GotoEditReplace Find what: ' Replace with: nothing, leave this blank Replace All How do I tell if it is formatted as text? Unless you have changed formats, TEXT will default align left and NUMBERS default align right. To compare length: Suppose the value with the inverted comma is in cell A1: =LEN(A1) And compare that result to the length of the other value. If the inverted comma is just a text format apostrophe, that will not be counted in the length. Biff "Molly" wrote in message ... Hi Biff, Thank you for taking the time to consider my problem. The format does not change monthly, the database section has had a recent system change. When I needed the information the inverted commas were present next to the student numbers. After the system change,one month later the system has done away with the inverted commas leaving me in a pickle. I believe the system is now stable. It could be unseen characters, how do I compare the length of the string. To me they look the same except for the inverted comma. How do I tell if it is formatted as text? I assume that is what the inverted comma means. I think the system will stay now without the inverted commas so I need to get my data into this format. kind regards Martina Biff wrote: Hi! '04152365221 This will not speak to older data (from last month!) which is of the format: 04152365221 What format is that? Is it formatted as TEXT so it keeps the leading 0 or is is a custom number format 00000000000? Could be the imported data has unseen characters such as spaces, line feeds, line breaks, etc. If both values have the same format try comparing the length of each string. If this data is imported monthly, why would the format change from month to month? Biff "Martina" wrote in message ... Could someone help me with a data format issue. I am importing student numbers from a university database which come into my sheet as: '04152365221 This will not speak to older data (from last month!) which is of the format: 04152365221 I have tried: Removing the inverted comma. Doing the multiply by 1 Changing both to General format Have used the Text to Columns feature. I can't seem to achieve a common ground. It only works if I physically retype each number in again. This is really not a viable option. Any help would be greatly appreciated regards Martina |
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