Here is a quick tip to start the week.
Often, we end up with a situation where a bunch of numbers are stored as text.
In such cases, Excel displays a warning indicator at the top-left corner of the cell. If you click on warning symbol next to the cell, Excel shows a menu offering choices to treat the error.
Converting numbers stored as text back to numbers
Tip #1: Error correction
One easy and quick way to convert all the text-numbers to numbers is,
- Select all the cells
- Click on warning indicator next to top-most cell
- Choose Convert to number option
- Done
Tip#2: Paste Special Convert
Sometimes such text-numbers may be scattered across the worksheet, thus making selection of cells a pain.
In such cases, follow this process (see demo below)
- In a blank cell, just type 1
- Copy this blank cell.
- Select all the cells that have text-numbers.
- Press CTRL+ALT+V to launch Paste Special box.
- Choose Multiply from operation area.
- Click ok & Done!
Enjoy your numbers.
Bonus tip: If you think the error indicators are annoying, you can turn them off. Just go to File > Options > Formulas and turn off all the error checking rules you don’t need.
PS: Thanks to Justin for emailing me the Paste Special Multiply with 1 trick.
One Response to “How to compare two Excel sheets using VLOOKUP? [FREE Template]”
Maybe I missed it, but this method doesn't include data from James that isn't contained in Sara's data.
I added a new sheet, and named the ranges for Sara and James.
Maybe something like:
B2: =SORT(UNIQUE(VSTACK(SaraCust, JamesCust)))
C2: =XLOOKUP(B2#,SaraCust,SaraPaid,"Missing")
D2: =XLOOKUP(B2#,JamesCust, JamesPaid,"Missing")
E2: =IF(ISERROR(C2#+D2#),"Missing",IF(C2#=D2#,"Yes","No"))
Then we can still do similar conditional formatting. But this will pull in data missing from Sara's sheet as well.