Text and Numbers

Cells hold two main kinds of values: text and numbers. Text is anything made of words or letters, labels like Apples or Total. Numbers are values you could do math with, 12, 5, 3.5.

Excel decides which kind you meant from what you type. Type letters and it stores text; type only digits and it stores a number. In most spreadsheets you can even see the difference at a glance: text lines up on the left of its cell, numbers on the right.

Why does the difference matter? Because only real numbers can be calculated with. The number 42 can be added, averaged and compared; the text "42", say, typed as part of a sentence like 42 apples, is just characters to Excel, the same as Bananas. A number wearing quotes is words in a costume.

The habit to build: labels as text, values as plain numbers, each in its own cell. Apples in one cell, 12 in the cell next door, never 12 apples squeezed into one. Your future formulas will thank you.