Question : Excle not recognizing number as text

In my Excel 2003 worksheet, i have a column that is numbers, but for the VLOOKUP to work, they ahve to be converted to text.  I tried highlighing the column and coverting, but unless i actually enter the cell and leave it, it will not recognize the value as text.  After enter and leaving, the error message that a number is stored as text shows up and the VLOOKUP works, but yet for the others, the format does say text, but there is no message stating the vlaue is stored as text!  I don't know what is going on and I don't want to have to click inside and exsit several hundreds rows

Answer : Excle not recognizing number as text

ssmith94015,

Assuming that your data "look" like integers, in another column enter a formula like this:

=TEXT(A2,"0")

Copy that down as needed.

Now, copy the range with that formula, and use Paste Special / Values to paste over the original range, and then clear out the range with the formula you just entered.

Patrick