Change Text to number & Excel not calculating formula

[Salman]

Hi,
I am using Excel 97-2000. Exported some revenue figures from another system
called ‘DataExkavator’ into Excel. Although these are ‘numbers’ and not text
but I cant add them. I also tried to change them to numbers by using ‘value’
function but its not helping either and showing the formula I typed rather
than displaying the calculation. Please see below:

Customer Name Cust Revenue Adj

ABC 109629.378 =value(B2)
DEF 33386.558 =value(B3)
GHI 2063.095 =B4
JKL 2798.695 =abs(B5)

Please advise. Your help will be highly appreciated. Thanks, Salman

 

[bapeltzer]

It's not clear from your post, but I'll assume that the "ABC" is in one cell
and 109629.37 in another (if not, try Data > Text to Columns with the space
character as a delimiter).
If you want to convert by entering the =value function, be sure that the
cells are not formatted as text; you need to do that BEFORE entering the
function (highlight the cells, select Format and choose general).
You can also coerce the existing cells into numbers:
select a blank cell and ctrl+c to copy
highlight the cells to convert and edit > paste special, select ADD and
click ok. In order to add, Excel will convert the cells to numbers.

 

[Luke M]

Sounds like the cell with formula is formatted as text. Try changing the
format of formula cells to general or number, then select cell, press F2, and
then Enter to recalculate.

If that doesn't help, make sure the cells with numbers are also not
formatted as text. I'm a little suspiscious since it looks like some are
left-aligned (usually used for text), and some are right-aligned (default for
numbers)