Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Converting Text to Values.

Converting Text to Values

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated April 25, 2020)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365

4

If you are using Excel to massage data imported from another system, you know that often the data needs quite a bit of work. For instance, you might import information that represents a time value, but the data actually ends up being treated by Excel as a text string.

If you find your data in this condition, all is not lost. If you want to convert the text values into actual time values, there are several ways you can accomplish the task. The first is to follow these steps:

  1. Insert a blank column to the right of the data you need to convert.
  2. Just to the right of the first cell that has a text-formatted time value, enter the following formula. Make sure you substitute the address of the cell for A1:
    3.         =VALUE(A1)
  3. Copy the formula down so that each cell to be converted has the formula to its right.
  4. Select the column in which you just put the formulas.
  5. Press Ctrl+C. This copies the selected information to the Clipboard.
  6. Display the Home tab of the ribbon.
  7. Click the down-arrow under the Paste tool and then select Paste Special. Excel displays the Paste Special dialog box. (See Figure 1.)

    8. Figure 1. The Paste Special dialog box.

  8. Make sure the Values radio button is selected.
  9. Click on OK. All your formulas are replaced with actual values.
  10. Format the column using a desired Time format.
  11. Delete the original text-formatted time column.

Once you get going with this process, it is pretty quick. Not as quick, however, as the following approach:

  1. Select the cells that contain the text-formatted times. If it is an entire column, select the entire column.
  2. Display the Data tab of the ribbon.
  3. Click the Text to Columns tool. Excel launches the Convert Text to Columns Wizard. (See Figure 2.)

    4. Figure 2. The Convert Text to Columns wizard.

  4. Don't worry about any of the settings in the Wizard—your data should be converted just fine with the defaults.
  5. Click on Finish.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (11438) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Converting Text to Values.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Keeping Table Rows Together

When you create a table that extends beyond a single page, you may want to make sure that the information in a table row ...

Discover More

Automatically Saving Changes to Defaults

Have you ever started a new document only to find that the settings in Word seem to be different than what you expected? ...

Discover More

Printing a Style Sheet

Styles are a fantastic way to format your documents easily and consistently. At some point you may want to print out a ...

Discover More

Solve Real Business Problems Master business modeling and analysis techniques with Excel and transform data into bottom-line results. This hands-on, scenario-focused guide shows you how to use the latest Excel tools to integrate data from multiple tables. Check out Microsoft Excel 2013 Data Analysis and Business Modeling today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

Displaying a Hidden First Row

If you hide the first rows of a worksheet, you may have a hard time getting those rows visible again. Here's a simple way ...

Discover More

Undoing Actions in Only the Active Workbook

When you undo actions within Excel, those steps you undo may affect the multiple workbooks in which you've been working. ...

Discover More

Converting Forced Text to Numbers

If you have some numbers stored in cells that are formatted as text, you may get some surprises when you try to use those ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is 4 + 0?

2021-10-19 04:56:29

Leslie Glasser

Commas or decimal points are simply conventions which may be altrered in Excel. Try this:

https://www.extendoffice.com/documents/excel/5229-excel-comma-to-decimal-point.html

2021-10-18 09:55:22

Tim Foxen

Hi, neither worked. I don't think it applies to my situation - a European/south african excel version that uses commas instead of decimals and reads decimals that get imported as text. So I need to convert the text (numbers with decimals) to numbers, with commas). If you have that solution, please let me know!!

2020-04-25 22:35:58

Leslie Glasser

These methods to convert text to numbers may fail when there hidden leading or trailing characters.

This array function will remove up to 10 such hidden characters (will work as dynamic array in Excel 2016; otherwise enter with Ctrl+Shift+Enter)

=VALUE(CONCAT(SUBSTITUTE(IFERROR(VALUE(SUBSTITUTE(MID(A1,ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(A1))),1),".",10)),""),10,".")))

from https://www.reddit.com/r/excel/comments/8imcd1/cant_convert_text_to_numbers_tried_everything/

(Author: dm_parker0)

2020-04-25 10:13:53

Mark Watson

If this is a task that needs to be done repeatedly I suggest using Power Query (Get & Transform).

This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.

Links and Sharing
OUR COMPANY
OUR PRODUCTS
OUR SITES
 

Copyright © 2023 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.