Copy paste SSN text strings into number

[{=OR(value=array)}]

Hi,

So in my raw data set there is a column with SSN in text string in the form "000-00-0000". I would like to copy paste the column (after filtering) into another worksheet and be able to use its values to lookup in an array with SSN in number format. Currently both VLOOKUP and MATCH are interpreting the lookup SSN's as strings and fails to match them to the array of SSN as numbers.

I know I can easily convert the text strings into number values using text functions. However, I'm wondering if there's any simpler way, without having to feed the string SSN's through a set of functions. I've played with formatting either & both of the arrays into Special SSN format, to no avail.

Regards,

[SamT]

Helper Column

=(Substitute("A1","-",""))*1

Copy and paste values.