Task 1 of 6
In G2:G6, turn the text in column A into numbers (some have spaces at the edges).
Lesson theory
After an export from an accounting system, a bank or a CSV file, numbers and dates often arrive as text: they hug the left edge, SUM does not see them
(it returns 0), and sorting goes "alphabetically". In Excel such cells have a green triangle and a "Convert to Number" option.
VALUE(TRIM(A2))removes the spaces at the edges and turns the text into a number. A shorter way:=--A2;SUBSTITUTEremoves the extras: a $ sign, commas between thousands;NUMBERVALUE(text, decimal, group)converts a number written with foreign separators: "1.250,75" from a European CSV, where the comma is the decimal separator;- a date such as "2026-03-15" or "15/03/2026" (day/month/year) is safest to build from its parts:
DATE(year, month, day)withLEFT,MIDandRIGHT.
To check:
=ISNUMBER(A2) is FALSE for text and TRUE for a real number. In Excel you can also fix day/month/year dates with
Data › Text to Columns, setting the column format to "Date: DMY".Practice is part of Pro
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