Microsoft Office

Part II
Working with Formulas and Functions
To pad the number with asterisks, use two asterisks in the number-format code, like this:
$#,##0.00**
CROSS-REF
Refer to Chapter 24 for more information about custom number formats, including additional
examples using the asterisk format code.
Removing excess spaces and nonprinting characters
Often data imported into an Excel worksheet contains excess spaces or strange (often unprintable) characters.
Excel provides you with two functions to help whip your data into shape: TRIM and CLEAN:
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TRIM removes all leading and trailing spaces and replaces internal strings of multiple spaces by a
single space.
CLEAN removes all nonprinting characters from a string. These “garbage” characters often appear
when you import certain types of data.
This example uses the TRIM function. The formula returns Fourth Quarter Earnings (with no excess
spaces):
=TRIM(“ Fourth Quarter Earnings “)
Counting characters in a string
Excel’s LEN function takes one argument and returns the number of characters in the argument. For example,
assume the string September Sales is contained in cell A1. The following formula will return 15:
=LEN(A1)
Notice that space characters are included in the character count.
The following formula returns the total number of characters in the range A1:A3:
=LEN(A1)+LEN(A2)+LEN(A3)
CROSS-REF
You see example formulas that demonstrate how to count the number of specific characters
within a string later in this chapter. Chapter 14 covers counting techniques further.
Changing the case of text
Excel provides three handy functions to change the case of text:
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UPPER converts the text to ALL UPPERCASE.
LOWER converts the text to all lowercase.
PROPER converts the text to Proper Case (the first letter in each word is capitalized, as in a proper
name).
These functions are quite straightforward. The formula that follows, for example, converts the text in cell
A1 to proper case.
=PROPER(A1)
If cell A1 contained the text MR. JOHN Q. PUBLIC, the formula would return Mr. John Q. Public.
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