Converting Text to Numbers

@Willy,
I must confess that when I "step over" an unnecessary Macro - I don't bother to waste my time in exploring it.
************************
Michael (Micky) Avidan
“Microsoft® Answers" - Wiki author & Forums Moderator
“Microsoft®” MVP – Excel (2009-2014)
ISRAEL

Micky: I entirely agree with you. If Excel can do the job then you certainly don't need a macro. But looking at the macro presented in this tip I was perplexed by its unnecessary complexity. There is a simple solution though: use the For Each ... Next statement that has been designed for these situations. I can't resist presenting a 'cleaned' version of this macro:

Sub ConvToNum()
Dim cell As Range, MyText As String
For Each cell In ActiveWindow.Selection
If VarType(cell) = vbString Then
MyText = Trim(cell)
If Right(MyText, 1) = "-" Then
cell = "-" & Left(MyText, Len(MyText) - 1)
End If
End If
Next cell
End Sub

To the best of my knowledge, there is no need for any macro to achieve that task - even if the MINUS sign was typed as the right most character.
Selecting the range of cells and applying 'Data' > 'Text to Columns' > 'Next' > 'Next' > 'Finish' - will do the job by changung the MINUS sign location.
Michael (Micky) Avidan
“Microsoft® Answers" - Wiki author & Forums Moderator
“Microsoft®” MVP – Excel (2009-2014)
ISRAEL

This tip should be titled "converting numbers with a minus sign at the end to numbers with a minus sign at the beginning".

If you have normal numbers stored as text (for instance, by preceding with an apostrophe, or by selecting "text" as the number formatting), there are two ways to convert them back to numbers:

1) If you have the right error-checking rule in place (XL2007: Office button > Formulas > Error checking rules > Numbers formatted as text or preceded by an apostrophe), you should have the green formula error triangle appear in the corner of the cell(s) containing text numbers. Once you select the cell(s) a diamond-shaped flag appears -- click it, then select "convert to number".

2) If your text numbers are appearing as part of a macro, or if you want more control over how the numbers are converted, you can set the .Value property of the cells equal to itself. For instance, if the cells to change are in a Range variable called rng, the following line will convert them to a number:

<code>rng.Value = rng.Value</code>

I use the second approach because I get sheets that are formatted as text in order to keep the decimals aligned. I have a routine that counts the number of decimals then after converting to numbers, sets the number formatting to match what was there before.