Text

Text is also referred to as Labels because it is often used to identify the information entered in columns or rows. Text entries include any letters, numbers and symbols on the keyboard, and up to 32,000 characters may be entered as text in a single cell. Entries containing a mix of letters and numbers are always treated as text, which has a value of 0 (zero) if used in a calculation. Text will automatically align on the left of a column, but can be moved to the right or centre.

If text is wider than the column it is entered into it will overflow onto the adjacent cell if it is blank, otherwise the text will appear truncated. Changing the column width may affect how much of the entry can be seen. A formatting option allows text to word wrap onto multiple lines within the width of a column, with a corresponding increase in the height of the row.

Values

Values are usually number entries and used in calculations on the sheet. Numbers can be formatted to appear in different ways, for example with or without currency symbols, with as many decimal places as required. Numbers that contain too many digits for the width of the column are displayed as hash symbols (####). The number displays correctly when the column is wide enough.

Numbers can be formatted to display in any required manner by using the formatting commands.

Note: Leading and trailing zeros on numbers are ignored. If a currency symbol other than a £ sign is used, the entry is treated as text, not a number. Other currency symbols can be displayed using formatting commands.

Dates

Dates are values that can be used in calculations to create new dates or calculate time intervals. Excel counts dates as the number of days from January 1st 1900, and stores the date as a number. For example, 1st May 2000 is stored as 36647. Dates can be displayed in a variety of more familiar looking styles depending on how they are formatted. The table below gives you some examples of different date formats.

Formulae

Formulae are the instructions that perform calculations on the sheet. Formulae may be very simple or extremely complex and the result may be a number, a date or a message. A formula begins with an equal sign (=) followed by one or more values to calculate. The values can be entered directly into the formula, but it is more effective to enter the values onto the sheet and refer to those cells in the formula.

Formulae can include arithmetic functions, specialised functions such as averaging or totalling, or be used to transfer data around the sheet.