Forcing formatting as number

[oliviar]

Hi Guys,
I have a basic formula in one of my columns in a query. Its saying 'if there was an order on this date, put the order number in this column'. Easy peasy.
Except the order numbers are being pulled from excel via a linked table.
And they INSIST of being outputted back to excel as text.
I have tried going to properties in the query and formatting the column as a number. And in excel, they seem to show up as a number.
But once back in excel... 'number stored as text, convert to number?'

Its frustrating for the fact that the table is humongous. And converting text to number can take 15 MINUTES!

Is there a way to conclusively format the text as numbers? Maybe in SQL?

 

[alansidman]

Is there any reason that these order "numbers" need to be in number format? If they represent an order designation, what difference does it make? Will you be doing calculations on these "numbers?"

Alan

 

[oliviar]

That is an excellent point. However some being numbers and some being text causes problems with search, lookup and counting functions.
They are supposed to be numbers, so that's what I need to get them to be.

 

[alansidman]

If that is the only reason, why not take the easy route and make them all text?

Alan