How to handle a minus sign "-" as text not as part of a formula?

  • Thread starter Claudia d'Amato
  • Start date
C

Claudia d'Amato

When I enter something into a cell beginning with a minus sign "-" then the content
is automatically interpreted as a formula.

How can I prevent this and let Excel treat the cell content (only for this cell) as text?

Claudia
 
D

Dave Peterson

You can start your entry with an apostrophe: '-1234 qwer

or you could preformat the cell(s) as Text, then do the data entry.
 
D

Daryl S

Claudia -

You can precede the minus sign with a single quote ('). The single quote
won't show in the cell (it will show in the formula bar), and it tells Excel
this is text, not a number.
 

Ask a Question

Want to reply to this thread or ask your own question?

You'll need to choose a username for the site, which only take a couple of moments. After that, you can post your question and our members will help you out.

Ask a Question

Similar Threads

VBA-Table Word 2019 - Move a selected text, from a cell to the adjacent cell to its right, by pressing the ENTER key 0
Excel does not accept text format! 0
Help needed! Extracting Heading 3 and Contents from a Word Doc to Excel 0
Disable auto-input of cell when typing a minus 0
Cumulative formula for word table 0
minus signs, or dashes in a formula or hyperlink 3
Visio: copy text of a master shape to User-define Cells (Variable) 0
How to remove preloaded-text upon creation of a new Word file? 0

Top