Trying to surround Text with other characters in sheets

Grizz

Im trying to see if there is a way to surround text within one of my cells with asterisks on both sides "*". Im trying to accomplish this in a helper cell after submission within my form goes to a sheet. Similar to the function in excel- ="*"&A1&"*" but with "A1" being the cell I'm trying to surround with asterisks -[Request Number]@row

Not sure if this is possible in some way or is there a way to have my form submission auto put in asterisks on both side of my cells value

Victoria_Indimar

If I'm understanding correctly, I think this should work:

="*"+[Request Number]@row+"*"

Jeff Reisman

@Grizz Use a "Request Number Helper" column in the form to collect the form response (you can change the label for this field on the form.) Then, in your sheet, in the Request Number column where you want the value to show with asterisks, use a formula there to add them:

="*" + [Request Number Helper]@row + "*"

Right click on the formula, then select "Convert to column formula" at the bottom of the menu. This will set the formula in that column for all existing rows and all new rows.

If you might have rows without a Request Number Helper value and don't want "empty" Request Numbers with just the two asterisks, throw this into an IF:

=IF([Request Number Helper]@row <> "", ("*" + [Request Number Helper]@row + "*"), "")

English: If the request number helper column on this row is not blank, set the Request Number value to the result of this formula; otherwise, leave the Request Number blank.