Issue with Apple Numbers Functions. Text and Actual

Question

Level 1

9 points

Issue with Apple Numbers Functions. Text and Actual

I am trying to get the sum of added numbers from a CVC file i downloaded of amazon purchases. The sum function is not working. Could you please help me figure out why?

It works fine when I enter the numbers, but not for numbers that Amazon added. I thought that I needed to delete the $ on all of the the numbers amazon gave me (it came with a dollar sign in the text I think, which I thought was throwing off the calculations), but that did not fix it . I used almost the same numbers right next to the numbers amazon gave me in the next cells over and the sum works fine there. The ONLY difference is that the bottom left corner of numbers says “TEXT” for the amazon numbers, and “ACTUAL” for the numbers I added, so im guessing this must be the source of the problem, but I dont know how to make it work right for the numbers that amazon gave me. You can see what im talking about better in these screen shots below.

Could you please help?

Thanks, Dan

Formula that isn’t working:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/m9mf2239gg9nbzf/Screenshot%202018-03-01%2017.30.38.png ?dl=0

Selection of cell in formula that is not working:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/d5pww7ov5g6l4ik/Screenshot%202018-03-01%2017.34.44.png ?dl=0

Formula that is working:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/vt97277bvgqjoo7/Screenshot%202018-03-01%2017.34.10.png ?dl=0

Selection of cell in formula that is working:

https://www.dropbox.com/s/on18cqc51utsu53/Screenshot%202018-03-01%2017.35.18.png ?dl=0

iMac, iOS 10.3.2

Posted on Mar 1, 2018 2:52 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

Yellowbox

Level 7

20,383 points

Mar 1, 2018 7:28 PM in response to danjags12

Hi Dan,

The numbers that won't add are text, as shown by the left alignment in the cells.

Select those cells and Format Panel > Cell > Data Format > Number

And yes, you were correct to delete the $ symbols. If you want $, format the cells as Currency.

Regards,

Ian.

Reply

Answer 2

SGIII

Level 8

35,288 points

Mar 1, 2018 7:34 PM in response to danjags12

It looks as if Numbers is interpreting the imported "numbers" as "text."

To have Numbers recognize them as numbers you can try the short script below. No need to have any experience with scripts. You should be up and running in less than a minute.

Copy-paste the script below into Script Editor (in Applications > Utilities)
The first time make sure Script Editor is listed and checked at System Preferences > Security & Privacy > Privacy > Accessibility.
Select the cells that Numbers doesn't recognize as Numbers.
Click the 'run' button in Script Editor.

SG

tell application "Numbers"

tell front document's active sheet

tell (first table whose selection range's class is range)

repeat with c in (get selection range)'s cells

try

set c's value to (c's value) * 1

end try

end repeat

end tell

Reply

Issue with Apple Numbers Functions. Text and Actual

Similar questions