numeric value is not formatting correctly

Hello everybody,
I have one small problem. Hope someone can shed some light on.
I'm using =LEFT(A2,5) fuction to extract some numeric values. Once the value
is extracted in different cell (let say C2), the value in C2 is not
formatting correctly. And what I mean by that is that the $ sign or "," is
not applicable to format the extracted value. Yes, once you over write it, it
will format like $ 23.00 but you have to overwite it. Now I have atleast over
a thousand rows and it will take lot of time if I have to do cell by cell. Is
there is way that I can highlight the extracted values and somehow able to
format correctly?
Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Fam

--
Message posted via http://www.officekb.com

Hi

Try this. Copy an empty, unused cell. Select the range of 'numbers' and then
Edit/Paste Special/Add
Make a backup before you start!

Hope this helps.
Andy.

"Fam via OfficeKB.com" <u18245@uwe> wrote in message
news:5b48a496d791f@uwe...
> Hello everybody,
> I have one small problem. Hope someone can shed some light on.
> I'm using =LEFT(A2,5) fuction to extract some numeric values. Once the
> value
> is extracted in different cell (let say C2), the value in C2 is not
> formatting correctly. And what I mean by that is that the $ sign or "," is
> not applicable to format the extracted value. Yes, once you over write it,
> it
> will format like $ 23.00 but you have to overwite it. Now I have atleast
> over
> a thousand rows and it will take lot of time if I have to do cell by cell.
> Is
> there is way that I can highlight the extracted values and somehow able to
> format correctly?
> Any help will be greatly appreciated.
> Fam
>
> --
> Message posted via http://www.officekb.com

That is because the LEFT function returns text: you may have 23.00 but it is
still text made up of digits.
To coerce a numeric value you need to 'do some math' on the result. So any
of these work:
=--LEFT(A2,5) 'preferred
=LEFT(A2,5)*1
=LEFT(A2,5)+0
best wishes
--
Bernard V Liengme
www.stfx.ca/people/bliengme
remove caps from email

"Fam via OfficeKB.com" <u18245@uwe> wrote in message
news:5b48a496d791f@uwe...
> Hello everybody,
> I have one small problem. Hope someone can shed some light on.
> I'm using =LEFT(A2,5) fuction to extract some numeric values. Once the
> value
> is extracted in different cell (let say C2), the value in C2 is not
> formatting correctly. And what I mean by that is that the $ sign or "," is
> not applicable to format the extracted value. Yes, once you over write it,
> it
> will format like $ 23.00 but you have to overwite it. Now I have atleast
> over
> a thousand rows and it will take lot of time if I have to do cell by cell.
> Is
> there is way that I can highlight the extracted values and somehow able to
> format correctly?
> Any help will be greatly appreciated.
> Fam
>
> --
> Message posted via http://www.officekb.com

Andy, thanks for the reponse.
I did not get it. Can you please eloborate little more?
Thanks

wrote:
>Hi
>
>Try this. Copy an empty, unused cell. Select the range of 'numbers' and then
>Edit/Paste Special/Add
>Make a backup before you start!
>
>Hope this helps.
>Andy.
>
>> Hello everybody,
>> I have one small problem. Hope someone can shed some light on.
>[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
>> Any help will be greatly appreciated.
>> Fam

--
Message posted via http://www.officekb.com

Thank you guys.
It worked perfectly.

Bernard Liengme wrote:
>That is because the LEFT function returns text: you may have 23.00 but it is
>still text made up of digits.
>To coerce a numeric value you need to 'do some math' on the result. So any
>of these work:
>=--LEFT(A2,5) 'preferred
>=LEFT(A2,5)*1
>=LEFT(A2,5)+0
>best wishes
>> Hello everybody,
>> I have one small problem. Hope someone can shed some light on.
>[quoted text clipped - 12 lines]
>> Any help will be greatly appreciated.
>> Fam

--
Message posted via http://www.officekb.com