Formula

[Always Learning]

Hello,

Could someone please help me with the following:

I have imported a file into Excel which is a tab delimited text file. I am
trying to use some functions to work on the data but the cell only displays
the function code and not the function result. If I create a new worksheet
and put the function here all works well.

Why doesn't the function code work in the original worksheet cell and how
can I get it to work?

I really appreciate your help.

Best Regards,

Steve Wilson.

 

[Always Learning]

Hi Will,

Thanks for the quick response.
I had already tried what you suggested. I copied from one sheet to another.
Apart from getting a not enough memory error it does work this way but I was
wondering if anyone knew of how to do it in the existing cells.
The problem is obviously caused because I have imported the file into Excel
as text but there has got to be an easy solution to this. We import all
columns as text because when the file is opened by Excel it immediately
strips the leading zeros on telephone numbers causing major headaches if it
is not noticed or remembered.

Thanks for you help.

Best Regards,

Steve Wilson.

 

[Will Siddall]

Hi Steve,

There's a couple of things that you could try. Why not try to copy the
information from the text file and paste it into the excel sheet. I'm not
quite sure how you would import it any other way.
Something else to try is to make sure you have an equal sign before your
formula. i.e: =if(A1="","Add Value","Done"). If this doesn't work, hit
Ctrl+` (not ' ). This is the "Show Function". It will show the functions
in the cells.

Let me know if this works.
Will S.

 

[Dave Peterson]

I bet you inserted a column in between a couple of columns formatted as text (or
near them.

When you do that, excel "helps" you by formatting that column as Text, too.

So select that column/columns and format|Cell|General.

But that won't help change the existing text formulas. But now you can either
hit F2 and enter for each formula (and probably drag down each column)
--- OR ---
edit|replace
replace =
with =
(replace all)

and xl will see your Text as formulas.