Importing dates is a better option but, sometimes, even imported dates come in as text. When this happens, use the DATEVALUE function to convert the text dates to Excel serial numbers.

Microsoft Excel depends on data that’s stored correctly. If you receive text values that should be real numbers, use one of these methods to get you back to the real work.

To ignore all numbers stored as text, you need to open the Data tab and select the Text to Columns option. Then, select the Delimited option from the Convert Text to Columns wizard.