[Excel online] Number cells in a column displayed as text problem please help

quickest way I've found to convert text to numbers is to highlight the data in question, then go to the data tab at the top, go to text to columns and open, if delimited isn't selected select it, then hit finish and it will convert all to numbers.

you can do it with the whole column too, just highlight column D.

Well, the problem is I don't have the license to install Microsoft Excel on my notebook. I just use the Excel online on the Microsoft Edge browser. It seems there is no such "text to column" thing on the data tab of the excel online website and my question is why when I selected all of the cells of the column and in the number section of the home tab, I change the data type from "General" to "Number" but there is nothing happen to the data of the column. Do you know what has happened with the data in my excel file.

what types of things can you do (because I don't use excel online)?
another way
select a blank cell, click copy, select the range containing the cells with numbers stored as text, click on paste >> paste special, select Add from the box and hit ok.
last and longer way I know of is to open find and replace, then find what >> put in a number like 1 or 2, replace with what >> same number, replace all. This is slightly more tedious as you might have to go through all 10 numbers to get them all replaced (0 through 9) but it also works.

I can do something on the Excel online but the function is quite limited in comparison to desktop program. I have tried Excel 2007 a long time a go on a desktop pc running Win XP and now I use Excel on the web browser and the function is really limited. I don't have any Microsoft Office app installed on my notebook the time I bought it and I don't know much these the Excel thing. The past special you say I don't see in the Microsoft Excel online. I'll try the search and replace numbers you have provided. This is really painful with these the my work.

since most of your dates are last century or this century, simply finding 1 and replace all with 1, then doing same with 2 should hopefully accomplish what you need (so two find and replaces).

BTW, you don't need to quote posts, the admins don't like it as it can just be clutter. When replying to a post if something specific is needed then a quote but you can usually just refer to the post number, and since so far it only the two of us on here you really don't even need to do that.

You're right, I'll do it as what you say, the forum thing. And the search and replace method you have said help. It save lot of time. But I don't know why these the thing come up. Some months ago I did the thing on another excel file with the same data of these the columns. I don't remember the thing but when I look back the file, the similar file on the drive, there is no such number frustration of the column. I don't know why. Was it because of the Microsoft website or the problem of the data. I hope some people have the answer.

The formatting could be an issue where the source is producing text (maybe the dates in one vs the other are coming from two different sources).

For example I have data in an access database that I format as text instead of number because I was told a long time ago by someone who taught me that if in the end you are not going to add it, subtract it, multiply it or divide it you want it to be text. Plus sometimes you have leading zeros that you want to preserve for later matching with other databases. In general you don't add years (though you can subtract them) so some people will leave years in a database as text. It really can depend on the source.