A colleague and I encountered a behavior in Excel which isn't clear to us.
Background:
We have a tool which converts an Excel sheet into a table format. The tool calculates the formulas which are in excel and replaces variables inside it with specific values.
The excel tool is used by one of our customers who use values like (8) or (247).
These Value are automatically translated by excel to -8 or -247.
Question:
I saw that many people want to display negative numbers in parentheses. But why would Excel change values in parentheses to a negative number?
I know that I could simply change the cell config to text and this would solve the problem but I wonder if there is a reason for the behavior, since there seems to be no mathematical reason for this.
Its simply the different format of cells you are bringing the "values from" and "pasting to". ..... numbers with parentheses are in cells with "accounting" format and negatives are stored in general or standard number formated cells. To resolve you can change the format of destination cells to accounting using cell formatting as number>accounting.
To answer the why, it's because accountants put negative numbers in brackets for readability
Unfortunately, this is one of the excel feature/bugs that helps some folks and frustrates others. When opening a file or pasting content, excel will immediately and always try to parse any values into formats it deems appropriate, which can mess up data like:
Zip Codes / Tel. # → Numeric: 05401 → 5401
Fractions → Dates: 11/20 → Nov, 20th YYYY
Std. Errors → Negative Numbers: (0.1) → -0.1
For some workarounds , see Stop Excel from automatically converting certain text values to dates
Once the file is open/pasted, the damage is already done. At that point, your best bet is:
Updating the field and displaying as text (appending with ') to prevent re-casting
Formatting the field if the operation wasn't lossy and is just presenting the info differently
Running a clean if/else to pad or other convert your data based on the identified errors
Specific to displaying values back in parens, if excel is converting them and treating them like negative numbers (which may or may not be the appropriate way to actually store the data), you can apply a different format to positive and negative numbers to wrap back in parens.
It is standard practice to write negative values as numbers in parentheses, especially in accounting. This makes negative values stand out much more than a simple negative hyphen; compare -1 and (1).
Excel is a tool very commonly used by accountants and supports accountant-style spreadsheets. Therefore, entering (100) means having a value of -100, even if there is no minus hyphen!
Here is a fun fact, if you enter (-10), Excel will treat it as normal text.
Related
PROBLEM:
hey y'all, i have a large dataset of both domestic and international phone numbers formatted in various ways that i need to convert to a particular format based on specific criteria.
example of current phone number formats in the dataset:
###-##-##-####-####
+##-##-####-####
(###) ###-####
+## (#) ## ### ## ##
##-##-######-#
as you can see, the phone number formats vary greatly and there are many more examples that i did not list. i work with datasets averaging 1000+ rows.
what i try varies depending on how much data cleanup i need to perform, but below are some of my current methods.
Approach 1: Manually editing
i have attempted manually updating the phone numbers to my desired formatting. however this is time consuming and leads to user error.
Approach 2: CTRL+1 "Format Cells"
i start by sorting my list of numbers. then follow ctrl+1 > Number > Custom to format the following:
domestic as 000-000-0000, UK as +##-##-####-####, etc.
the issue with this method is that the numbers are stored as formatted "Custom" values. so any special spaces or characters (i.e. "-", "+") do not exist within the string. meaning that i cannot import into my crm.
i have attempted to manually add "'" at the beginning of each formatted phone number, but it removes the special formatting. e.g. ###-###-#### just becomes '##########.
Approach 3: Functions
i have tried using the following functions on domestic phone numbers, but they only work if formatting follows ###-###-####. which is not always the case for the data i work with.
=SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(SUBSTITUTE(A1,"(",""),")","")," ",""),"-","")
or
=MID(A1,2,3)&MID(A1,7,3)&RIGHT(A1,4)
Approach 4: Macro
i've attempted recording macros, but this does not work properly since the length/formatting of a cell value and size of a sheet always varies.
Approach 5: VBA script
i am currently exploring various scripts. there are a ton of examples on stackoverflow, but most presume clean data formatted as (###) ###-####. so the scripts do not work for me.
this post was helpful as a first step to removing all special characters from cells: Phone number format
but again, only applies to certain types of formatting.
DESIRED OUTCOME
i undergo this process various times a month and am hoping somebody can help me optimize my approach.
i need domestic numbers to become ###-###-#### and international phone numbers vary, but the UK would look like +##-##-####-####. i need these characters to exist within the actual string of each cell, otherwise my crm will not accept the phone numbers.
I'm not entirely sure, but maybe this gets you going:
Formula in B1:
=MAP(A1:A5,LAMBDA(x,LET(y,CONCAT(TEXTSPLIT(x,TEXTSPLIT(x,ROW(1:10)-1,,1),,1)),TEXT(--y,SWITCH(LEN(y),10,"###-###-####",12,"+##-##-####-####","0")))))
MAP(A1:A5,LAMBDA(x - Loop over a given dataset;
LET(y,CONCAT(TEXTSPLIT(x,TEXTSPLIT(x,ROW(1:10)-1,,1),,1)) - Part where each input gets cleared into just pure numeric characters;
TEXT(--y,SWITCH(LEN(y),10,"###-###-####",12,"+##-##-####-####","0"))))) - Now use SWITCH() to test against the length of the numeric input. If 10 or 12 we kind of know what format we like, the last parameter is the 'standard' format. But obviously you could start adding checks. In the samples given, you'd want to include options for length 11 and 15.
I need to format dates in excel, and I'm trying to use the TEXT formula. The problem is that Excel's intepretation of the arguments changes when the locale changes.
For example: if I have a date in cell A1, that i'd like to convert to text, in the year-month-day-format, I have to use =TEXT(A1, "yyyy-mm-dd") if my PC has an English-language locale, but =TEXT(A1, "jjjj-MM-tt") (I kid you not, the M has to be upper case) if it has a German-language locale. This makes the document unportable. (The second argument is plain text and therefore not converted when changing locale.)
Remarks:
This is just an example, I know I could do the long =YEAR(A1) & "-" & TEXT(MONTH(A1), "00") & "-" & TEXT(DAY(A1), "00") in this case. I'm wondering about the more general case.
The date should not just be displayed in a certain format, it should actually be a string. For someone viewing the file this doesn't make a difference, but when using it in other formulas, it does.
I could write a UDF in VBA to solve the issue, but I cannot use VBA in this document.
I do not care about changing the names of the months etc. It's fine, if the name of the month is June or Juni depending on the locale.
I want to stress that the issue occurs due to the PC's locale - not due to the GUI language of the MS Office version. In the example above, Excel's GUI and formulas were in English in both examples; I just changed the locale on the machine.
Many thanks
Here is a slightly cheaty method: Use a VLOOKUP on a value that will change based on your System Language - for example TEXT(1,"MMMM")
=VLOOKUP(TEXT(1,"MMMM"),{"January","yyyy-MM-dd";"Januar","jjjj-MM-tt"},2,FALSE)
In English: Text(1,"MMMM") = "January", so we do a VLOOKUP on the Array below to get "yyyy-MM-dd"
"January" , "yyyy-MM-dd" ;
"Januar" , "jjjj-MM-tt"
Auf Deutsche, Text(1,"MMMM") = "Januar", also wir machen einen SVERWEIS auf dem Array oben, um "jjjj-MM-tt" zu erhalten! :)
Then, just use that in your TEXT function:
=TEXT(A1, VLOOKUP(TEXT(1,"MMMM"),{"January","yyyy-MM-dd";"Januar","jjjj-MM-tt"},2,FALSE))
Obviously, the main reason this works is that TEXT(1,"MMMM") is valid for both German and English. If you are using something like Filipino (where "Month" is "Buwan") then you might find some issues finding a mutually intelligible formatting input.
I found another possibility. It is not perfect in all cases (see below) but it also works with number formats to be locale independent. As I have the same issue with mixed language versions.
For this you make your own function in vba. Open the developer tools with Alt+F11 and create a new module file. Inside the module file paste something like this:
Function FormatString(inputData, formatingString As String) As String
FormatString = Format(inputData, formatingString)
End Function
Then you can use it in cell formulas with english formating strings. Like:
= FormatString(A1; "yyyy-mm-dd")
Advantage: It also works with number formats:
= FormatString(A1; "00.00")
In case (like Germany) your decimal separator is not a .
Drawbacks:
1 Not identical to TEXT function
this doesn't always work with date formatting as maybe expected and not exactly the same as the TEXT function:
FormatString(1; "MMMM")
does not return "January" but "December" because the 1 is taken as a date. Which is something like 31.12.1899.
2 Has to be saved with macros
You have to save the file as *.xlsm for this to work
Note (1): this answers only the case for locale-independent TEXT to format numbers with decimal symbols and digit grouping symbols. For date formatting, see Chronocidal's answer.
Note (2): this answer does not use VBA functions, which would require enabling macros. Enabling macros may not be possible depending on the company's security policy. If enabling macros is an option, Uwe Hafner's answer would be easier.
You can detect the decimal symbol and digit grouping symbol as follows. Enter the number 1 in a specific cell (e.g. A1) and the number 1000 in another cell (e.g. A2).
Decimal symbol: =IF(TEXT(INDIRECT("A1"),"0,00")="001",".",",")
Digit grouping symbol1: =IF(TEXT(INDIRECT("A2"),"#,###")="1000,",".",",")
This is assuming that the decimal symbol is either . or , and the digit grouping symbol is either , or . respectively. This will not detect unusual digit grouping symbols like (space) or ' (apostrophe).
With this information, you can set up a cell (or cells) with a formula that results in the format code you need to apply.
Suppose you need to format a number to two decimal digits and using the digit grouping symbol. You can assume that if the decimal symbol is . then the digit grouping symbol will be , and vice versa. You can do the following:
A1: 1
A2 (the formatting string): =IF(TEXT(INDIRECT("A1"),"0,00")="001","#,##0.00","#.##0,00")
A3 (contains an arbitrary number you wish to format)
A4 (the formatted number): =TEXT(A3,A2)
Technical note: the INDIRECT function is used intentionally because it is a volatile function. This guarantees that the formatting string and anything dependent on it is recalculated even if no data changed in the Excel document. If INDIRECT is not used, Excel caches results and will not recalculate the formatting string when the Excel document is opened on a PC with different locale settings.
1 - Also known as Thousands separator
The easy fix, whether directly custom formatting a cell or using TEXT(), is to use a country code for a language you know the proper formatting codes for.
For instance, I am in the US, have a US version of Excel, and am familiar with its date code formats. So I'd want to use them and to ensure they "come out" regardless of anyone's Windows or Excel version, or the country they are in, I'd do it like the following (for TEXT(), let's say, but it'd be the same idea in custom formatting):
=TEXT(A1,[$-en-US]"yyyy-mm-dd")
The function would collect the value in A1, ask Excel to treat it as a date, Excel would and would say fine, it's cool (i.e.: the value is, say, 43857 and not "horse") because it is a positive number which is a requirement for anything to be treated as a date, and let the function move on to rendering it as a date in the manner prescribed. Rather than giving an #ERROR! as it would for "horse" or -6.
The function would then read the formatting string and see the language code. It would then drop the usual set of formatting codes it loaded upon starting up and load in the formatting codes for English ("en") and in particular, US English ("US"). The rest of the string uses codes from that set so it would interpret them properly and send an appropriate string back to TEXT() for it to display in the cell (and pass on to other formulas if such exist).
I have no way to test the following, but I assume that if one were to use a format that displayed day of the week names or month names, they would be from the same language set. In other words, Excel would not think that even though you specified a country and language that you still wanted, say, Dutch or Congolese month names. So that kind of thing would still need addressed, but would be an easy fix too just involving, say, a simple lookup one could add though it'd be "fun" setting up the lookup table for each language one wanted to accomodate...
However, the basic issue that arises with this problem in general, is very, very easily solved with the country codes. They aren't even hard or arcane anymore now that the [$-409] syntax has been replaced with things like [$-en-us] and [$-he-IL] and so on.
So i have some rdfs that download from the server through rwservlet as excels (xls). My question is: can i use excel formulas like sum on the report returned data?
I tried formatting the data (i think here relies the problem as it seem it doesn't affect the data that's already there) and modifying the decimal separator to "." from the rdf. Neither work, not separate or together; the sum formula returns 0. However if i overwrite new data over report data in a field, sum works.
It seems to me it sees all the data returned from the report like text and the formatting doesn't affect the already there data.
Thank you
I go to the root of the problem: the format mask in the rdf was adding a space for sign for the positive numbers. Hence excel was not recognizing it as a number. Problem is after i put a "-" in the format mask to get rid of the space excel re-formats the number automatically from 1.00 to 1 for example. So basically the format mask in the rdf is overwritten, i could not use it at all and i'd get the same result.
I'm using excel 2007.
I've a list of tasks (200-500) that I need to group in different category/section etc (multiple filters). Whole data is in excel table so I can apply Excel's build-in table filters to display exact data that I need.
However it is always difficult to apply multiple filter to display expected data, specially as I need to do it very frequently. To make things simple I'm planning to number each record like
a.b.c.d.e.f
Where a, b, c, d, e, f are simple numbers. List looks like:
1
1.1
1.2
1.2.1
1.2.1.1
1.2.2
1.3
& so on.
Problem is, Excel take it as number with single decimal but as soon as I add second decimal, excel treat it as text, which is obvious in general behavior.
However, as special case, I need excel treat both as number or text. Number is preferable as I want to sort them, which might be difficult as a text.
To make the things little more complex, while filtering in table, I require if I can add some formula to filter results like 1.* should display all numbers starts with 1.
Is it possible with excel's default behavior, without VBA?
If no, is it possible with VBA? If yes, any clue is appreciated. I don't need whole program as I can write basic VBA program, just a clue how it can be done?
I sort mine by adding a helper column that adds a letter to the front and sort on that. E.g. 1 becomes f1, 1.1 becomes f1.1 etc. Then all are sorted as text.
You can use the formula ="f" & A1.
My sample:
Then the data sorted:
And the filter:
If I were to try this without VBA, my first step would be to use the sort to columns function on the data tab.
Next make sure all empty spaces in your data are filled with zeros.
Then sort the data by column
as long as you left your original data in the same row as the sorted data (I didn't in the images posted to focus on the process), your items should now be in order.
In the below code I am having problems making sure the file writer does not round my number off to a certain number of decimal places. I need to use a variant because sometimes the value is string and at other times it is a number.
How can I force it to write exactly what the variable is? For example the below code might show 0.00038 and I want to show the exact value.
Dim MyFile1 As Variant
Dim MyNumber as Variant
MyFile0 = "C:/myfile.csv"
fnum0 = FreeFile()
Open MyFile0 For Output As fnum0
MyNumber = 0.0003759656
Print #fnum0, MyNumber
Your code is fine. The issue is with excel. When opening a CSV in excel, including thru VBA, excel detirmines what a cell is. Typically, if it lloks like a number with more then 5 characters it will express it in Scientific notation or rounded to 5 places.
Note sure what you are doing with the CSV file before or where you are getting it from, but here are some options to prevent excel from changing your data:
In VBA use the Workbook.OpenText command to open the CSV with either:
-the all excel cells as text*
-the column stored number with so many decimal places
(note a max of 30 decimal places apply)
-a particular column store as text.
--A full list of option syntax here http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/office/bb22351(v=office.12).aspx
You may also import your CSV into an excel spreadsheet, it will give you the option to choose data type for each column. Then run the VBA against the excel file.
If you are not doing formulations in excel, I would recomend storing the number as a text string. VBA automatically converts strings of numbers into numeric values when needed.
It's likely that you're experiencing floating point errors. They are are very small errors that occur when numbers are converted from/to base 10 (human) to/from base 2 (computer). For your purposes, you need to determine what it means that two values are not equal. It's not just val1 <> val2 because that won't account for the tiny errors. If you're dealing with money, for instance, you probably don't care about anything less than a penny. So you might determine inequality as ABS(val1 - val2) > .001. You just need to determine what your tolerance for equality is and compare to that standard.
It may be that your number is not being stored as a number in vba, and when you write it Excel converts it. Say you're number is 1.789 and you write it to a cell that is formatted as 'GENERAL'. Excel will write 1.79 (and think that's the number, not even a formatting issue).
What I've discovered, is if you convert the number to a decimal first CDEC(YOURNUMBER), it will write it correctly. For good measure, I also verify that the cell is '.NUMBERFORMAT = "GENERAL'