LEFT not working with file that was emailed to me ...

[JCinPA]

Boy, this is infuriating. I've searched the web a bit and determined that the data should be formatted as TEXT and the formula should be formatted as GENERAL, and I took care of that. In the Formulas ribbon, Show Formula is NOT selected. Here is a screenshot of my sheet.

Excel.jpg

I don't know why the image is not embedded, but the link works. As you can see, cell C1 contains the formula

=LEFT(B1)

And it should return "M". I have confirmed that cell B1 is formatted as TEXT and cell C1 is formatted as GENERAL.

Here is what is very, very odd. If I create a new, blank workbook and type that formula in cell C1, then manually type in the date "Akers" and "Mike" into cells A1 and B1 respectively, the formula does return "M" in cell C1. But if I copy and paste the data from the original workbook, it disappears! No, I am not crazy. Well, usually.

That is a long list and I am trying to concatenate email addresses out of the data, but I am dead in the water until I can figure this out.

I am happy to email the workbook to anyone who wants to play with it, if you PM me your email address. Thanks, in advance, for any help you can provide.

-John

[Norie]

John

Have you checked to see if there's a space, or other non-printing character, before the name in B1?

[JCinPA]

homer-simpson-doh.gif

Space, Thanks!

[judgeh59]

I was going to suggest using a LEN function verify if there is something not visible

[JCinPA]

It was a leading space.


[/thread]

Thanks!