Return Number Format Codes in Excel – 4 Ways to Get the Formatting Code from a Cell
Excel is a great software. It’s easy to use (at least the basic functions…) and very flexible. Unfortunately, coming with the flexibility, users tend to misuse the options and disobey certain basic rules. One thing I’ve seen multiple times is to transport important information in the formatting of a cell. It might be the background color, font color or strike-through. In this article, we’ll talk about something related: Return number format codes.
Problem: Information is stored in the number format code of the Excel cell, for example the currency “USD” or “EUR”.
Let’s assume the following example. You receive a table containing prices with two columns. The first column contains the name of the item, for example “Product A”. The second column contains the respective prices. The problem is that instead of having one common currency, the currency information is only given in the number format code. Learn four methods in this article of how to return number format codes in Excel.
Please note: If you want to know how to use custom number format codes, please refer to this article. On this page we only explore how to return number format codes.
Merge Excel Files: How to Combine Workbooks into One File
You have several Excel workbooks and you want to merge them into one file? This could be a troublesome and long process. But there are 6 different methods of how to merge existing workbooks and worksheets into one file. Depending on the size and number of workbooks, at least one of these methods should be helpful for you. Let’s take a look at them.
Metadata in Excel: 6 Methods of How to See and Remove All Meta-Data
Every Excel file has metadata. According to Wikipedia, “Metadata is data [information] that provides information about other data”. That means, metadata is some data which is not your content of your file but rather information like the author name, data saved or even the file name. Or in other words: If your Excel file is a letter or parcel, the address written on it is the metadata.
In many cases, the metadata is very useful: You can easily see who edited the file the last time or when was it saved the last time. But sometimes, you want to remove this information. For example, when you send your file to a client and it still contains somehow data of your previous client.
This article introduces 5 methods to see, change and remove the metadata of your Excel file.
GETPIVOTDATA: Disable GETPIVOTDATA permanently in Excel
Does this sound familiar to you? You want to refer to a cell within a PivotTable, let’s say cell C6. But instead of getting =B6, Excel does something like =GETPIVOTDATA(“Value”;$A$3;”Name”;”c”). This article shows you how to permanently disable GETPIVOTDATA in Excel.
FIELDVALUE Formula in Excel: Insert Data of Companies and Countries (+Download)
Excel has – in it’s newest version – a quite useful new formula type. It’s called “linked data” and offers the functionality to automatically insert data from the internet to your table. This can be done with the FIELDVALUE formula and works in a first test quite well. Unfortunately, the available data types and options are limited so far. But let’s see how it works first.
Excel Add-In Disappeared? 4 Methods to Prevent an Add-In to Disappear
You are using an Excel add-in that keeps disappearing? Also our add-ins, for example Professor Excel Tools, sometimes might disappear after restarting Excel. This article introduces four methods of how to prevent Excel (and other Microsoft Office) add-ins from disappearing.
[…]
Sort Excel Sheets: 3 Simple Methods (+Download)
Especially for large Excel workbooks with many sheets it’s crucial to organize the content. You should—for example—sort worksheets in a logic sequence. One way to sort sheets would be in an alphabetical order. This article introduces three simple methods for sorting Excel worksheets.
Array Formulas in Excel: All You Need to Know
Array formulas are an advanced topic in Excel. Usually Excel users discover them when reaching the limits of – let’s call them – normal formulas, e.g. SUM, VLOOKUP, COUNT and so on. This article provides an introduction of array formulas in Excel.
Insert Author Name, Date Last Saved, File Size into Excel Cell: 3 Methods (+Free Download)
You want to display the name of the author or who has saved the Excel file the last time? Or you want to insert the date last saved, the date created or the file size into an Excel cell? Unfortunately, there is no way without some disadvantages. Let’s take a look at three different methods.
Professor Excel Newsletter
- The best Excel tips, tricks and tutorials.
- 1x per month.
- No spam. Promised.
Your welcome gift:Save a lot of time with our 45-pages keyboard shortcut package.
Book: Speeding Up Microsoft Excel
'Professor Excel Tools': Add more than 60 amazing features to Excel!
Overview | Features & details
Excel Shirts and Accessories
Check this out:
Try our free apps:
Professor's Daily Tips for Excel: Get one free Excel tip every day.
Professor's Error Helper for Excel: Solve any error in Excel.
Also Interesting:
- Comments to Cells – 3 Methods for Comments and Notes (+Download)
- Return Number Format Codes in Excel – 4 Ways to Get the Formatting Code from a Cell
- Merge Excel Files: How to Combine Workbooks into One File
- Metadata in Excel: 6 Methods of How to See and Remove All Meta-Data
- GETPIVOTDATA: Disable GETPIVOTDATA permanently in Excel
Top articles:
Comments to Cells – 3 Methods for Comments and Notes (+Download)
Many Excel users like to use the comment function in Excel. Unfortunately, they come with some disadvantages (displaced, wrong size, hiding content, bad for printing, often outdated, e.g.) so that I usually recommend not to use them. Instead, I recommend using a comment column. This article describes how to transform Excel comments to cells. Extract comment text or note text of an Excel cell with these 3 methods.
[…]
General