Formula to convert cell values to a string with a quote mark

[rono]

Ok seems simple enough but can't seem to find a solution. I have some cols of data which I'd like to copy but I want the values enclosed in double-quote marks i.e.
A1234 -> "A1234"
The columns of data will be updated continously so I need a formula that can put in the quotes. If I do something like ="B1" Excel thinks the quote marks are for formatting and I only get the B1 value without quotes.
After some processing the quoted cols are clipped to a text file for processing in another prgm -which requires quotes as a delimiter.
Any ideas on a formula for this?
Thanks
Ron.

 

[Yogi Anand]

Hi rono:

Let us do this -- if your entry A1234 is in cell A1, then in cell B1, use the following formula:

'=""""&A1&"""" .... (this is with two pairs of DoubleQuote_marks on each side of A1)

 

[Juan Pablo González]

Something like this seems to work ok

=""""&A9&""""

or, if you want to understand the logic, you can use

=CHAR(34)&A9&CHAR(34)

 

[rono]

Thanks Yogi and Juan -That works great! I knew it couldn't be that difficult. I tried 2 double quotes -never would have guessed it requires 4 -Why? and why does a single quote CHAR(34) in Juan's example work?
Thanks
Ron.

 

[Juan Pablo González]

Because when you're using something like this

="Text here"

you're telling Excel that you're going to "send" him some Text. That's the *thing* with a quote. You just basically have to trick Excel into believing that the text is the quote.

So, that's why I use the CHAR(34) to avoid confusion. The CHAR function returns a string, in this case, the quote, then, I just join it with the text at hand.