NUMBERVALUE

New Excel function in Excel 2013

The NUMBERVALUE function converts numbers stored as text to numbers.

Syntax

NUMBERVALUE(reference,[decimal separator],[group separator])

The reference is either a cell range or text.

The decimal separator is an optional single character enclosed in inverted commas. It is used to indicate the separator between whole numbers and decimals.

The group separator is an optional single character enclosed in inverted commas. It is used to indicate the separator between thousands and millions.

Comments

If used against anything other than than numbers, a #VALUE error is returned.

If the number ends with a percentage symbol (%), the result is divided by 100.

Empty cells return a zero.

Common currency symbols like $,£, € are removed.

If there are brackets around the number, the result will be negative.

Dates, where the format matches the locale, are converted to a number.

Best to use

It is best used to convert data bought in from a source outside Excel.

Examples