Formatting Column of Numbers To Text

A Rose

Hi there,

Is there a option in smartsheet to format a column of Numbers to Test?

Anyone please assist.

Thank you!

Paul Newcome

You would put an apostrophe before the number.

'1

would generate a text value of "1". The apostrophe will not be visible and will not be picked up in other formulas that are referencing the cell.

Paul Newcome

Unfortunately it is one cell at a time.

Another option would be to create another temporary column and use

=[Number Column Name]@row + ""

You could then dragfill the formula much faster than editing each cell one by one. Then you could select all of the cells in this column and copy them then use "Paste Special" and select "Values" to paste the text value for the entire range. With dragfill and copy/paste it could end up being much faster depending on how many cells you have.

Paul Newcome

You would need to either convert them manually or through a formula into a separate column. You cannot specify that a column is always text or always number.

A Rose

How do we do that manually please?

Thanks!

Paul Newcome

You would put an apostrophe before the number.

'1

would generate a text value of "1". The apostrophe will not be visible and will not be picked up in other formulas that are referencing the cell.

A Rose

Is there a way to Add or remove that from a entire column?

Paul Newcome

Unfortunately it is one cell at a time.

Another option would be to create another temporary column and use

=[Number Column Name]@row + ""

You could then dragfill the formula much faster than editing each cell one by one. Then you could select all of the cells in this column and copy them then use "Paste Special" and select "Values" to paste the text value for the entire range. With dragfill and copy/paste it could end up being much faster depending on how many cells you have.

Nandes

What kind of formula would I use if I want to remove the apostrophe ( ' ) ?

Paul Newcome

@Nandes Are you strictly working with numbers, or could there also be text values?