Fixing Excel’s Text-Number Confusion

Excel TEXT vs VALUE – Why Your Numbers Don’t Add Up

One of the most common Excel errors is numbers stored as text.

By Sharanmeet Singh••
Tags:ExcelTEXTVALUEData Cleaning

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Excel TEXT vs VALUE

Sometimes Excel won’t add up numbers, and the culprit is: numbers stored as text.

The Problem

  • Imported data often brings numbers as text
  • They look like numbers but don’t calculate

Example:

="123"

This is text, not a number.

Fix with VALUE

=VALUE("123")

Converts text into a real number.

Format with TEXT

=TEXT(123, "$#,##0.00")

Converts a number into a formatted text string.

Key Difference

  • VALUE → Text → Number
  • TEXT → Number → Text

Pro tip: Always check data types before doing calculations.