Custom number formatting for multiple data cells I have unsuccessfully been atte

Question

Custom number formatting for multiple data cells

I have unsuccessfully been attempting to change the format of a column of numbers to a custom format. Some of the numbers are entered correctly, but in a list of over 8500 entries I need to change the format of those that are not correct WITHOUT doing so manually.

The number format I created is for a US phone number, as follows: ###-###-####

I have tried selecting the column by selecting all. I have tried manually selecting the entire column. I have tried manually selecting portions of the column. It works only when a single cell is selected. I do not have that kind of time (nor do I want the inevitable eye bleeding and brain exploding that would follow that type of manual adjustment. Lol!)

I also tried to change a faulty zip-code format via selecting the column, it did not work. I was abble to change them via the "replace" functyion, but that will not work for this situation.

Any thoughtss or solutions would bee EXTREMELY appreciated!! Thanks, in advance! !

Explanation / Answer

Probably some of the entries aree being treeated by Excel as text, raather than a number. If some appear with the hyphens, they are probably text. You are doing everything correctly. You should select the entire column and then apply the custom number format. Unfortunately, if some items do not change they are text and not a number, You will have to see to teach of these manually. This is very likely to happen when you paste in data from an unknown source, like a web page, a file somebody sent you, or other data you did not originate. Can you explain with examples, why is not haappening when yyou apply the format, and maybe we can offer a suggestion to fix it...

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