What Is Excel TEXT Function and How to Use It?
With Excel, you can do a lot of things with data and calculations. Excel is such a versatile application that even the pro users are unaware of many of its functions.
There is always something new to learn about Excel functions, and in this blog, we’ll discuss the Excel TEXT function.
What Is the Excel TEXT Function?
The Excel TEXT function lets users convert numbers to text format with the help of format codes of Excel. This function allows you to change how a number appears in Excel by applying formatting.
Sometimes, you want to show numbers in a readable format or want to display the numbers after combining them with symbols and text. In such scenarios, the Excel TEXT function is highly beneficial.
Note: Before you proceed to use this function, remember that the TEXT function transforms the numbers into text. As a result, it might become difficult to refer to this in future calculations.
For this reason, it’s always a good idea to retain your original value in one cell before you use the TEXT function in some other cell. Thus, you can always refer to the original value, instead of the TEXT function value, in order to build other formulas.
The Syntax of the Excel TEXT Function
To apply this function, you’ve to use this syntax:
=TEXT(value, format_text)
In simpler terms, it means
- Value: The numeric data you want to transform into text.
- Format_text: The format you wish to apply to the value.
While writing the format_text argument, you’ve to put them inside a double quotation mark.
When Should You Use Excel TEXT Function?
The following situations are the perfect scenarios for using the TEXT function in Excel:
- When you want to display dates in a particular format.
- When you want the numbers to be in a more readable format for your users.
- When you want to combine some dates or numbers with certain characters or text.
The Commonly Used Excel TEXT Function Format Codes
Here are some format codes that are used for TEXT function:
- 0: This works as the placeholder to display unimportant zeros, such as decimal places.
- #: Use this to display crucial digits. You can use #.#### to display up to 4 decimal places.
- ?: This functions as the placeholder that doesn’t display leaves insignificant zeros but keeps spaces for them. Commonly used to represent aligned decimals.
- ,: Use it as the thousand separators.
- d: It shows the day of the week or month. While “d” and “dd” will represent the day of the month (without and with a leading zero,) “ddd” and “dddd” represent the day of the week (either abbreviation or full form.)
- m: This represents the month of the year. “m” and “mm” are month numbers in the digit. “mmm” and “mmmm” are month names in text.
- y: “yy” and “yyyy” mean a year in two and four digits.
Wrapping Up
Microsoft Excel offers a huge list of functions with the help of which users can manipulate the data within a spreadsheet.
It also lets you add features that you’ve thought to be impossible. In the above tutorial, we explained what is Excel TEXT function and how you can use them. Now, you shouldn’t have trouble using them.
You may also be interested in knowing how to add leading zeros in Excel.
