Convert Range to Numbers

Lately I've been working with a spreadsheet that imports data from a database application (Access). The numbers are formatted as text because some of them contain letters. So the whole field has to be formatted as text.

Then again, I'm not sure if the text formatting is because of that, or if it's just a function of being a foreign data source.

Anyway, I squeezed out this code (based on Trimming cells, before and after) that takes numeric cells and converts them to numbers. You need to select the data first.

Sub ConvertToNumber()

Dim arrData() As Variant
Dim arrReturnData() As Variant
Dim rng As Excel.range
Dim lRows As Long
Dim lCols As Long
Dim i As Long, j As Long

  lRows = Selection.rows.count
  lCols = Selection.Columns.count

  ReDim arrData(1 To lRows, 1 To lCols)
  ReDim arrReturnData(1 To lRows, 1 To lCols)

  ' read the selected range into an array
  Set rng = Selection
  arrData = rng.value

  ' set the number format
  rng.NumberFormat = "0"

  ' loop through array
  For j = 1 To lCols
    For i = 1 To lRows
      If IsNumeric(arrData(i, j)) Then ' convert to number
        arrReturnData(i, j) = CLng(arrData(i, j))
      Else ' leave it alone
        arrReturnData(i, j) = arrData(i, j)
      End If
    Next i
  Next j

  rng.value = arrReturnData

End Sub

I'm also aware that I could have done a "Copy / Paste Special" on the selection as well.

Filed Under: Excel

Tagged With: convet, GTD, number

Function IsDigitsOnly(Value As String) As Boolean IsDigitsOnly = Len(Value) > 0 And _ Not Value Like "*[!0-9]*" End Function Function IsNumber(ByVal Value As String) As Boolean ' Leave the next statement out if you don't ' want to provide for plus/minus signs If Value Like "[+-]*" Then Value = Mid$(Value, 2) IsNumber = Not Value Like "*[!0-9.]*" And _ Not Value Like "*.*.*" And _ Len(Value) > 0 And Value <> "." End Function

Function IsNumber(ByVal Value As String) As Boolean Dim DP As String ' Get local setting for decimal point DP = Format$(0, ".") ' Leave the next statement out if you don't ' want to provide for plus/minus signs If Value Like "[+-]*" Then Value = Mid$(Value, 2) IsNumber = Not Value Like "*[!0-9" & DP & "]*" And _ Not Value Like "*" & DP & "*" & DP & "*" And _ Len(Value) > 0 And Value <> DP End Function

Function IsNumber(ByVal Value As String) As Boolean Dim DP As String Dim TS As String ' Get local setting for decimal point DP = Format$(0, ".") ' Get local setting for thousand's separator ' and eliminate them. Remove the next two lines ' if you don't want your users being able to ' type in the thousands separator at all. TS = Mid$(Format$(1000, "#,###"), 2, 1) Value = Replace$(Value, TS, "") ' Leave the next statement out if you don't ' want to provide for plus/minus signs If Value Like "[+-]*" Then Value = Mid$(Value, 2) IsNumber = Not Value Like "*[!0-9" & DP & "]*" And _ Not Value Like "*" & DP & "*" & DP & "*" And _ Len(Value) > 0 And Value <> DP End Function

5 Comments on Convert Range to Numbers:

Khushnood Viccaji writes:

May 16, 2011 at 7:42 am

"If IsNumeric(arrData(i, j)) Then ' convert to number"

Shouldn't this line be :
"If NOT IsNumeric(arrData(i, j)) Then ' convert to number" ?
- Khushnood Viccaji writes:
  
  May 16, 2011 at 7:45 am
  
  Unless, you're forcibly converting ANY IsNumeric = TRUE cell to a Number; .
  And other (non-numeric) cells are left untouched ?
  
  My mistake in that case… apologies !
  - JP writes:
    
    May 16, 2011 at 6:09 pm
    
    That's correct, if the cell contents can be evaluated as a number, we convert it to a number. Otherwise if the cell contains text (as some of mine do), it is left alone.
Gregory writes:

May 16, 2011 at 10:16 pm
This looks good but when it encounters a blank cell it will return a zero. I would change one line to fix this.
```
If IsNumeric(arrData(i, j)) And Not IsEmpty(arrData(i, j)) Then ' convert to number if not empty
```
Rick Rothstein (MVP - Excel) writes:

July 15, 2011 at 1:49 pm
IsNumeric may not be the best function to use to determine if an entry is a number or not. Try using your ConvertToNumber macro on these values and tell me if the results are what you would expect (the last 4 will need to have the cells formatted as Text before you enter them)….

&7
&o1
&Head
$0$
1,2,3,4,5
1,,2,,3,,4
$(1,,2,,3,,)$
456-
1D2
3E4
123+
(123)

Here is a message that I started posting a long time ago in the old "compiled VB" newsgroups (where it dealt with TextBox entries) and more recently in the Excel newsgroups/forums when the need arose (the message describes the problem and a coding alternative to IsNumeric)…

I usually try and steer people away from using IsNumeric to "proof" supposedly numeric text. Consider this (also see note below):

ReturnValue = IsNumeric("($1,23,,3.4,,,5,,E67$)")

Most people would not expect THAT to return True. IsNumeric has some "flaws" in what it considers a proper number and what most programmers are looking for.

I had a short tip published by Pinnacle Publishing in their Visual Basic Developer magazine that covered some of these flaws. Originally, the tip was free to view but is now viewable only by subscribers.. Basically, it said that IsNumeric returned True for things like — currency symbols being located in front or in back of the number as shown in my example (also applies to plus, minus and blanks too); numbers surrounded by parentheses as shown in my example (some people use these to mark negative numbers); numbers containing any number of commas before a decimal point as shown in my example; numbers in scientific notation (a number followed by an upper or lower case "D" or "E", followed by a number equal to or less than 305 — the maximum power of 10 in VB); and Octal/Hexadecimal numbers (&H for Hexadecimal, &O or just & in front of the number for Octal).

NOTE:
======
In the above example and in the referenced tip, I refer to $ signs and commas and dots — these were meant to refer to your currency, thousands separator and decimal point symbols as defined in your local settings — substitute your local regional symbols for these if appropriate.

As for your question about checking numbers, here are two functions that I have posted in the past for similar questions….. one is for digits only and the other is for "regular" numbers (the code is simple enough that it can be pulled from the function "housing" and used directly inside your own code):
```
     Function IsDigitsOnly(Value As String) As Boolean
         IsDigitsOnly = Len(Value) > 0 And _
                        Not Value Like "*[!0-9]*"
     End Function

     Function IsNumber(ByVal Value As String) As Boolean
         '   Leave the next statement out if you don't
         '   want to provide for plus/minus signs
         If Value Like "[+-]*" Then Value = Mid$(Value, 2)
         IsNumber = Not Value Like "*[!0-9.]*" And _
                           Not Value Like "*.*.*" And _
                           Len(Value) > 0 And Value <> "."
     End Function
```
Here are revisions to the above functions that deal with the local settings for decimal points (and thousand's separators) that are different than used in the US (this code works in the US too, of course).
```
     Function IsNumber(ByVal Value As String) As Boolean
       Dim DP As String
       '   Get local setting for decimal point
       DP = Format$(0, ".")
       '   Leave the next statement out if you don't
       '   want to provide for plus/minus signs
       If Value Like "[+-]*" Then Value = Mid$(Value, 2)
       IsNumber = Not Value Like "*[!0-9" & DP & "]*" And _
                  Not Value Like "*" & DP & "*" & DP & "*" And _
                  Len(Value) > 0 And Value <> DP
     End Function
```
I'm not as concerned by the rejection of entries that include one or more thousand's separators, but we can handle this if we don't insist on the thousand's separator being located in the correct positions (in other words, we'll allow the user to include them for their own purposes… we'll just tolerate their presence).
```
     Function IsNumber(ByVal Value As String) As Boolean
       Dim DP As String
       Dim TS As String
       '   Get local setting for decimal point
       DP = Format$(0, ".")
       '   Get local setting for thousand's separator
       '   and eliminate them. Remove the next two lines
       '   if you don't want your users being able to
       '   type in the thousands separator at all.
       TS = Mid$(Format$(1000, "#,###"), 2, 1)
       Value = Replace$(Value, TS, "")
       '   Leave the next statement out if you don't
       '   want to provide for plus/minus signs
       If Value Like "[+-]*" Then Value = Mid$(Value, 2)
       IsNumber = Not Value Like "*[!0-9" & DP & "]*" And _
                  Not Value Like "*" & DP & "*" & DP & "*" And _
                  Len(Value) > 0 And Value <> DP
     End Function
```