Cannot Format

[newbie]

I copied a column of figures from a site to my excel file.
Now when I try to add the columns figure it just shows zero.
When I went to format box it was showing general - so I changed it to
number. Still no change.
I even could not format the numbers from 2 decimal to 3 decimal.
Can somebody help please.
Thanks & Regards.

 

[davesexcel]

lets see the figures!
How did you copy them and do they need to be edited

 

[Dave Peterson]

Copied from a web site?

Lots of times, you'll end up with those HTML non-breaking spaces that make your
numbers text.

You may want to try David McRitchie's routine to clean the data:

http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/join.htm#trimall
(look for "Sub Trimall()")

If you're new to macros, you may want to read David McRitchie's intro at:
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/getstarted.htm