Category : Tutorials + Patches
Archive   : QPRODOC.ZIP
Filename : TI259.ASC

PRODUCT : Quattro Pro NUMBER : 259
VERSION : All
OS : DOS
DATE : November 22, 1991 PAGE : 1/2

TITLE : Converting Numeric Labels into Numbers




A numeric label is a number that has been entered into a cell as
a label. The number will be preceded by an apostrophe ('), carat
(^), or quotation mark (") which signifies a label entry. For
example, the input line of a numeric label may look like

A1:'12345

This causes the number 12345 to be stored as a label with the
numeric value of 0 in cell A1.

The following methods are useful when your spreadsheet contains
numeric labels on which you would like to perform mathematical
calculations. Numeric labels can be the result of importing an
ASCII file or retrieving a database file where the numeric data
is being displayed as labels. They can also be the result of the
way the numbers were entered (i.e. using the /Database | Data
entry | Labels only or intentionally entering the numbers with a
label indicator).

USING SEARCH AND REPLACE

The first method of converting numeric labels to numeric values
is the Search and Replace function. This procedure is simpler to
use and is best suited for converting spreadsheets with mostly
values (numeric labels). To use this, select

/Edit | Search and Replace | Options Reset

and set the following options as follows:

Block The block of labels to be changes
(If the entire spreadsheet needs to be
changed, do not select a block)
Search String '
Replace String Leave this field blank
Look In Formula
Direction Row
Match Part
Case Sensitive Any case

















PRODUCT : Quattro Pro NUMBER : 259
VERSION : All
OS : DOS
DATE : November 22, 1991 PAGE : 2/2

TITLE : Converting Numeric Labels into Numbers




Select N to begin. Once it finds the first apostrophe, you will
be asked if you would like to replace the one it found or if you
would like it to replace the string. Choosing the All option
will cause Quattro Pro to change all numeric labels to numbers.

CONVERTING NUMERIC LABELS TO NUMBERS

Another method is the @VALUE command. The following example
shows how to convert numeric labels to actual numeric values
using the @VALUE command. This procedure is best for a large
number of cells that are in the proper format to accommodate this
method. In this example, column A contains numeric labels and
column B is currently blank.

_|______A_____________B_________
1 | 123
2 | 456
3 | 789

The following formula is entered into cell B1 then copied to
cells B2 and B3:

@VALUE(A1)

_|______A_____________B_________
1 | 123 123
2 | 456 456
3 | 789 789

Column A still contains the numeric labels. Column B now
contains the same numbers but they are numeric values.

If column A was deleted at this point, column B would return ERR
because the formula entered into column B is dependent on the
data in column A. Therefore, the next step would be to remove
column B's dependence on column A. To do this, select

/Edit | Values

You will be prompted for a source and destination block. In this
example, the source will be B1..B3 and the destination will be
A1..A3. This removes the formula from column B and stores only
the end result in Column A. Now column B can be deleted.