Formula displayed; Not calculating?

  • Thread starter Thread starter evoxfan
  • Start date Start date
E

evoxfan

This is my formula: =LEFT(A8,3)
A8 = "00500"
A8 is formatted as text.
Per the functions argument, the reult should be "005".
Instead, the formula is displayed instead of the result.

Why is this not displayed and how can I correct?
 
The cell was formatted as text when you entered the formula.
Format as General AND re-enter the formula (F2, ENTER)
 
Hi,

yes, Excel says the argument is text but what it means is that it treat the
argument as text, not that the function should be entered into a cell
formatted as text. The LEFT, RIGHT and MID function return text, which means
if you have a formula such as =LEFT(A1,2) and A1 contains a number 12345
Excel returns the text 12, the result is text not a number. But you can
easily convert it back to a number if need be.
 
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