CHALLENGE: Why can Excel still perform calculations on numbers stored as text???

[theexcellife]

Whether I convert a number to "text" format, or use the apostrophe to indicate a text string that consists of numbers, I can still perform calculations on those strings. Why is that?

Even crazier, I changed the number converted to "text" format to a string of letters, and my IF function still executed the logical argument which checked to see if it was greater than 0!

Anyone?

 

[jtakw]

Hi,

Text is actually stored/represented by numbers within Excel, that's why there are functions you can use to include/exclude certain values, see examples below:
Someone else here may be able to explain this to you in more detail.

Excel 2010
	A	B	C	D
1	text	TRUE	FALSE	TRUE
2	123	TRUE	TRUE	FALSE
Sheet1

Cell Formulas
Range	Formula
B1	=A1>0
B2	=A2>0
C1	=ISNUMBER(A1)
C2	=ISNUMBER(A2)
D1	=ISTEXT(A1)
D2	=ISTEXT(A2)

 

[Macropod]

Whether I convert a number to "text" format, or use the apostrophe to indicate a text string that consists of numbers, I can still perform calculations on those strings. Why is that?

Changing the formatting doesn't change the content; you could just as easily change the format to a date and still evaluate it as a number.

Even crazier, I changed the number converted to "text" format to a string of letters, and my IF function still executed the logical argument which checked to see if it was greater than 0!

You seem to be working from the false premise that IF tests can't evaluate strings - or at least numbers formatted as strings. Suppose you input the formula:
=IF(A1<>0,1,0)
into B1. If A1 is empty, the result in B1 will be 0; if A1 contains any text or non-zero number, the result will be 1.

 

[Aladin Akyurek]

Whether I convert a number to "text" format, or use the apostrophe to indicate a text string that consists of numbers, I can still perform calculations on those strings. Why is that?

Even crazier, I changed the number converted to "text" format to a string of letters, and my IF function still executed the logical argument which checked to see if it was greater than 0!

Anyone?

A text value is always greater than a number:

Let A1 house '1.

In B1 enter:

=A1>10

This should give TRUE as designed.