Combination text & numbers - use what format for pivot

I have a column of item numbers that have both text and numbers and are from
two different sources. I need to match the item# from both sources and found
that in a pivot table, many of the identitcal numbers are not recognized as
being the same item#. I tried formatting them as General or Number, or Text,
but this did not work. Any suggestions how to make all item#s recognized as
having the same format in order to be matched?

Thanks!
Amy

in a dummy column put =value(A1) then whether 3.57 is number or text, it will be a value.

Thanks Robert. That didn't quite work. It works if the data were all numbers.
But, when it comes upon an item # that has both letters and numbers, I get
#VALUE!. Any other suggestions?

"robert111" wrote:

>
> in a dummy column put =value(A1) then whether 3.57 is number or text,
> it will be a value.
>
>
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