Words to Numbers

[maggot_carrier]

I'm quite new to excel and would like to know something:
How can one make a word act like a number? For example how could I insert a word into a cell so it would be treated as a number by formulae but the word is what it shown on the cell?

Thank you,

[NBVC]

You can create a table on the side somewhere listing the words and the corresponding numbers in the next column. Then you can use some sort of lookup formula to extra the number for the word you type.

Have a look at Vlookup function in the excel help files.

[maggot_carrier]

Thanks but I now have another problem!
I am up to the point in where I have made a table and used a VLOOKUP and I can type a word into a cell and it then brings up the allocated number in a different cell.
But I would like it that excel treats the word as a number. For example if I type in the word 'hello' and put an allocated number to it in the table, when I type in the word 'hello' into a cell, when using formulae etc., it treats the word 'hello' as the allocated number.

Sorry for the trouble, thanks!

[NBVC]

Just insert the Vlookup() formula within your main formula...

example:

=Vlookup(A1,X1:Y10,2,0)*2

or

=If(Vlookup(A1,X1:Y10,2,0)>5,"Greater than 5","Less than or equal to 5")

Where A1 contains a word found in X1:X10 and Y1:Y10 contains numbers that correspond...

[maggot_carrier]

Oh. . .

Thanks NBVC! This helped a lot