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Converting Text Columns

The document discusses how to convert text columns in Excel to the proper format when importing data. It may be necessary to convert number columns to text if they contain leading zeros or will be used in formulas. The document provides instructions for using the fixed-width and delimited conversion methods to properly format text columns.

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Roderick Rivera
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© © All Rights Reserved
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
6 views

Converting Text Columns

The document discusses how to convert text columns in Excel to the proper format when importing data. It may be necessary to convert number columns to text if they contain leading zeros or will be used in formulas. The document provides instructions for using the fixed-width and delimited conversion methods to properly format text columns.

Uploaded by

Roderick Rivera
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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CONVERTING TEXT TO COLUMNS (EXCEL)

In the world of spreadsheets and data analysis, a basic rule of thumb is that if you are not going
to do a calculation on the values in a column or if the column has dates, then that column
needs to be formatted as “text”, even if that text is a number, such as a zip code or an NIGP
code. Some of the numbers for zip codes or NIGP codes start with a zero. If Excel thinks that
the column is a number, then it will remove leading zeroes. For example, if your NIGP code is
00514, and the column is formatted as a “number”, then Excel will display 514, not 00514. In
the NIGP Summary Tool, the formulas in the spreadsheet will not work properly if leading
zeroes are removed.
When downloading purchase order data from PeopleSoft, some columns have numbers (e.g.
supplier ID, NIGP code) and download correctly as text. But, if something happens and they
don’t, you can “convert” them. Simply formatting the column as text will not work once the
data has been imported into Excel as a number field. You must actually “convert” the numbers
to text. Of course, if any leading zeroes have been removed, then you will need to manually fix
those by typing in the correct value with the leading zeroes.
Depending on the data you have, you can split a single column of text into two or more
columns based on either fixed-width or delimiter.
 When you split a column based on fixed-width, you tell Excel to put the first X number of
spaces in one column, the next X number of spaces into the next column, and so forth,
until you have told Excel how many new columns you want to make out of the original
column.
 When you split a column based on a delimiter, you designate a character that Excel
recognizes as separating what is in one column from what is in the next column. The
most common delimiter is the comma (“,”) but you can also have tab-delimited, space-
delimited, semi-colon delimited, etc.
When you need to convert a column of numbers to a column of text, you can use either of
these methods. In the instructions below, you will convert a column of NIGP codes from
numbers to text using the fixed-width method because it is easier when you are converting one
column to one column.

Copyright © 2014 Department of Administrative Services


Converting Text to Columns

Using the Fixed-Width Method


Click on the column letter to highlight the entire column you want to
convert.

On the Data tab, click on Text to Columns.

Click on the Fixed width radio button.


Click Next.

Click Next since you are not going to split the column into
more than one column.

Click on the Text radio button. If you do


not click on the Text but leave it as
General, Excel will still think that the
NIGP codes are numbers. You must click
on Text here.
Click on Finish.
You will now see that the values in the
cells are left-justified. This means that
Excel now recognizes the numbers as
text.

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Converting Text to Columns

Using the Delimited Method


The Delimited method is one that uses a special character to tell Excel where to split the values
in cells into two or more columns. A common need for this is to split a column that has first
name and last name information. In this example, you will split a buyer name that is shown as
Last Name, First Name into two columns, one for the last name and one for the first name.
Plan ahead. Know how many columns you want to split your
data into. In this example, you want to have two columns
instead of one, so you will have to insert a new column
between column N (Buyer) and column O. The new column O
will be blank but when you are finished, it will have the first
name while column N will have just the last name.
Just as you did above for the fixed-width method, highlight the
entire column that you want to split.

On the Data tab, click on Text to Columns.

Leave the Delimited radio button (the default method)


checked.
Click Next.

The default delimiter type is Tab.

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Converting Text to Columns

Click on the checkbox next to Comma. You can


leave Tab checked if you want to. Notice that
when you click on Comma, a line showing the
columns appears where the comma was.
Click Next

Click on the columns in the sample data and then


the Text radio button. Do this for each column.
[NOTE: If you know that all of your data is already
“text”, then you can leave the data format as
General but it is always best to specify Text so that
you don’t have surprises later.]
[TIP: You can select multiple columns by clicking
on the first column, holding down the Shift key,
and then clicking on another column. Excel will
highlight all columns between the first column you
clicked and the last column. You can then select
Text for all columns.]
Click Finish.
If you get this message, you did not insert
enough columns to the right of the original
column and some of your data will be
overwritten. Click Cancel, insert enough
columns, and repeat the text to columns
steps.
You can now relabel your columns to Last
Name and First Name.

4|Page

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