Changing a letter, to a number???

[ncrowley]

I have started a spreadsheet for genetic data. I have 5 columns of data with hundreds of entries. I used an "x" to represent entries relating to the 5 columns. The problem is I should have used 1's and 2's, so I could total them up and run formulas on them. Is there any way to make the letter "x" turn into a number 1 or 2? I was just wondering about the IF statement, will that do it????

Thanks,
Nick

[Dave Peterson]

You could use an =if() statement, but how do you know which to use?

or maybe you could just
select your range
Edit|Replace
what: x
to: 1 (or 2??)
replace all



ncrowley wrote:
>
> I have started a spreadsheet for genetic data. I have 5 columns of data
> with hundreds of entries. I used an "x" to represent entries relating
> to the 5 columns. The problem is I should have used 1's and 2's, so I
> could total them up and run formulas on them. Is there any way to make
> the letter "x" turn into a number 1 or 2? I was just wondering about
> the IF statement, will that do it????
>
> Thanks,
> Nick
>
> --
> ncrowley
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ncrowley's Profile: http://www.excelforum.com/member.php...o&userid=28955
> View this thread: http://www.excelforum.com/showthread...hreadid=486837

--

Dave Peterson

[Ron Coderre]

Here are a couple options:

You could leave the x's and use COUNTIF and/or SUMIF functions:
Example:
=COUNTIF(A1:A100,"x")
will count the number of cells in A1:A100 that contain an x.

Alternatively, you could.....
-Select the range of cells
-Edit>Replace
\Find what: x
\Replace with: 1
\Click the [Replace All] button

Does either of those help?

**************
Regards,
Ron