Hi, this is Wayne again with a topic “The Excel TYPE Function”.
In this Excel video, I’m going to show you how to use the Excel type function, to figure out the type of data that is in each cell. Let’S get started so here I have an Excel spreadsheet, with a list of student names and information. This is all fictional. None of this information is real, but, as you can see, I have a mixture of text and numbers and student numbers and currency just all sorts of information here here, but I want to drill down and figure out what I’m actually seeing here. So I could click here on, let’s say cell a17 I’ll type equals and I’m going to use the Excel type function. So I just type in type and Excel tells us what it does.
It returns an integer representing the data type of a value. Is it a number then this function will return. The number one is it text, then it will return, two logical value, four Etc.
So all we need to do is put in a left parenthesis and then either type the value that we want to test, or often it makes more sense to just select a cell. So I’m going to select cell a16, I could click on it or I could type it either way. I should put in a right parenthesis: tap enter on the keyboard and Excel is looking at cell a16 and has determined that it is text. I’Ve included a little Legend over here at the right where we can look and see what each of the codes means.
Now I knew that Mason was text, but some of these other cells – I’m not so clear on whether they’re text or numbers or something else. So I can type that same type, function and formula again here or, as you probably know, I could click on the formula that I’ve already entered here. It is, and then I could use the autofill handle the little green Square in the lower right corner of the cell. I’M just going to click and hold the click and drag across my range of data and I’ll Rel release the mouse button. So my formula got extended across the range of data and I can easily see that these phone numbers are considered to be text not numbers same with the email addresses same with the student numbers, but the fees are considered to be numbers. Even these fee numbers here. In this column now, why is that interesting to me? It’S interesting, because this column is not made up of Simply numbers. It’S actually made up of formulas.
You can see that here and also in the formula bar. What actually is in this cell is not a number. It’S a formula, but the formula produces a number, the number 61 and so that’s important to know. The Excel type function is examining the contents of a cell unless it’s a formula and then it’s examining the results of the formula, not the formula itself so Excel can tell that this cell contains results of a formula that are number so it marks it as type Code one number over here we have a code.
16 16 – is an error value, so Excel can tell that. That’S an error here we have a type code for a logical value, true or faults, and as you can see, there are two other type codes that will come up from time to time. For example, if I click here on cell d18, I can type equals type left parenthesis and I could click in drag to select an array put in my right. Parenthesis tap enter and I get the code 64. That’S an array that I selected. So I hope that you’ll find ways to use the Excel type function and I hope you found this video to be helpful.
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