Using a Number as Text in Excel Made Easy

When using numbers in text strings you usually need to format them. You typically need to use the comma format and handle decimals. There is a function that can simplify this task.

The normal function used to format numbers to use as text is, funnily enough, the TEXT function. You can see some examples in the image below.

TEXT function examples

You need to specify the format to use within quotation marks. Note the numbers in column B are left aligned, meaning they are text, not numbers. Numbers are right aligned as in column A.

The simpler formula to achieve these same results is to use the FIXED function, as can be seen in the image below.

FIXED function examples

The syntax for the FIXED function is

FIXED(Value,Decimals,No_Commas)

The last two arguments are optional.

The example above in cell B2 uses only the Value argument.

The default for the Decimals argument is 2 decimal places.

The default for the No_Commas argument is to show commas as shown in each formula above.

If you don’t need the commas format you probably don’t need to use the FIXED function at all.

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