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The VALUE function in Excel is used to convert text that appears in a recognized format (such as a number, date, or time) into a numerical value. This function is useful when you need to perform mathematical operations on text values that represent numbers.

Syntax

The function takes a single parameter:

text: This is the text you want to convert to a numerical value. The text should represent a number, date, or time.

Example

The above example demonstrates how the VALUE function converts text representations into numbers. Note how different formats are handled by the function.

Practice Exercise 1

Task: Convert the following text to numerical values using the VALUE function.

Practice Exercise 2

Task: Convert the following date and time values from text to numerical values using the VALUE function.

Solution for Exercise 1

Here are the formulas used to achieve the conversion for Exercise 1:

The '450 text is converted to 450, the percentage text '3.75% is converted to 0.0375, and the currency text '$1,234.56 is converted to 1234.56.

Solution for Exercise 2

Here are the formulas used to achieve the conversion for Exercise 2:

The date text '4/1/2022 is converted to its serial number which is 44662, the time text '09:45 AM is converted to 0.40625, and the combined date and time text '2022-04-01 14:30:00 is converted to 44662.604167.

Conclusion

The VALUE function in Excel is extremely useful for converting text representations of numbers, dates, and times into their respective numerical formats. This allows you to perform various calculations and analyses on the converted data. By mastering the use of the VALUE function, you can ensure data consistency and accuracy in your Excel projects.