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what does ' mean in an excel formula?

Anonymous
2017-05-17T20:39:33+00:00

I have a hand me down spreadsheet that is using the apostrophe symbol in front of several text filled cells. I have no idea what the purpose of this is and am oh so curious. What is this about?

Example:  'Obligation

Example: 'Funds

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  1. HansV 462.6K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2017-05-17T21:30:33+00:00

    An apostrophe before a cell value forces Excel to interpret the value as text. This is mostly useful for values that look like a number or date.

    For example, Dec-1 would ordinarily be converted to a date in December. If you want the literal text Dec-1, enter it as 'Dec-1.

    In formulas that refer to another sheet whose name contains spaces, the sheet name is enclosed in apostrophes. For example:   ='Other Sheet'!A1

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  2. Anonymous
    2017-05-17T21:28:08+00:00

    Means nothing and does nothing in your example.

    If your data were numbers, the apostrophe would mean the numbers will be treated as text values.

    Example. . . . .if you want leading zeros to remain, preface them with the apostrophe.

    '000001234567

    Gord

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