Highline Excel Class 13: Text functions & AMPERSAND

by MissyMoo on February 8, 2010


See how to transform data into useful data using formulas and Text functions such as; TRIM, PROPER, SUBSTITUTE, REPLACE, FIND, and LEFT. See how to use the ampersand and the CONCATENATE function to join data. See how to speed up slow calculating spreadsheets with a concatenated column that joins three criteria and makes conditional (criteria) summing (adding) quicker. See how to: 1) create upper case for the first letter of each word, 2) extract only the last name, 3) extract only the first name, 4) get rid of extra spaces, 5) sum with 3 criteria using the ampersand and the CONCATENATION function. This is a beginning to advanced Excel class taught at Highline Community College by Mike Gel excelisfun Girvin Busn 214 btech 109

{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }

dannybro February 9, 2010 at 12:03 am

ok 10x . . . . i think it also works with isblank(cell) .
anyway it was about managing my holidays and it worked :) . . . . i was trying to do something like this : =IF(ISBLANK(D8);C7;(B7+C7)-F7+ABS(DATEDIF(D7;D8;”m”)*2))

ExcelIsFun February 9, 2010 at 12:24 am

Try this:

=OR(ISNUMBER(A1),ISTEXT(A1))

If a number (1. 25, 12, 0, -12, etc. ) is in A1 the formula says TRUE

If characters (word, $, *, etc. ) are in A1 the formula says TRUE

If a blank, an error or a TRUE/FALSE is in cell A1 the formula says FALSE.

dannybro February 9, 2010 at 1:04 am

Hey Michael how can i return a true or false value if a text or number is found in a cell ? 10x again :D

ExcelIsFun February 9, 2010 at 1:06 am

OK. How about a diet, then? TRIM is very versatile.

tongzilla February 9, 2010 at 1:18 am

no haircut dammit.

ExcelIsFun February 9, 2010 at 1:21 am

Tough is good because it means you can learn a lot!!!

thirthyest February 9, 2010 at 2:05 am

omg !!!!
this one is a bit tough for me :)

ExcelIsFun February 9, 2010 at 2:46 am

Dear Thunderbird2014,

Yes, the SEARCH function can handle arrays. This video shows the SEARCH with an array from cells (not typed in with syntax):

Excel Magic Trick 290: Count Codes From Column of Text Strings

–excelisfun

Thunderbird2014 February 9, 2010 at 3:14 am

I saw that video. I was just wondering if that can be applied to the SUBSTITUTE function.

ExcelIsFun February 9, 2010 at 3:36 am

Dear Thunderbird2014,

{1,2,3} (numbers in columns) or {1;2;3} (numbers in rows) uses array syntax to enter three numbers into an argument. in this video we are not doing that, but others I have, such as this one:

Excel Array Formula Series #5: SUM 3 Largest Values

–excelisfun

Thunderbird2014 February 9, 2010 at 4:00 am

Great video. At 6:27 regarding the instance number in the SUBSTITUTE function, could you enter instance 1 and 2, or maybe 2 and 3? I think another video had something similar where you used { }.

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