Excel interprets '++' in data as '=++' {Curly one}

[kersplash]

I have some data in an excel workbook generated from a report.

The cell contents should be '++XYZ' but when I look in the excel workbook it is being shown in the cell as '=++XYZ' and I get the value of the cell being #NAME? as Excel is trying to uae this as a formula.

I'm guessing the issue is that Excel is interpreting the '+' as a formula and automatically adding the '=' in the front, but the source data opened in a text editor, definitely shows only '++XYZ' and not '=++XYZ'

Any ideas on how to make excel see this as text?

[AliGW]

I'm guessing that you are going to need to make the change at source data level by changing ++ to '++. What is the nature of the source data?

[kersplash]

You're right. It's from another system, so I've just requested an apostrophe be added with the systems people.

Not sure how long this would take, so any other workaround ideas?

[AliGW]

I'd wait and see. Should work OK. The only other way might be to run a VBA procedure, but I don't know what that would look like.

[Sam Capricci]

I had a similar issue with an application that produced 10-15 as one of the outputs. I would then download the data as a .csv file which would always change that to October 15th of that year. Fortunately I am one of the administrators for the application so I went into that pick list and added a ' to it and since it has been ok.

That being said, I tried the ++XYZ in a cell and of course got the same result you got. Then I highlighted that column and did a find and replace with = to ' and it replaced all of them and the result is ++XYZ. Maybe that'll work for you?

[kersplash]

Yep that worked (find and replace). I hadn't got back here to update. Thanks for helping.