Welcome to Step 3 of our Excel Basics journey! 🎓
In this step, we’ll explore one of the most fundamental concepts in Excel:
✅ Data Types — specifically Text, Numbers, and Dates.
Understanding how Excel recognizes and handles different data types is crucial for applying formulas, sorting, filtering, and analysis correctly.
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📝 1. Text (Labels)
📘 What is it?
Text refers to any combination of letters, numbers, and symbols not meant for calculation.
🔹 Examples:
“John Smith”
“Invoice #12345”
“Q1 Sales Report”
📌 Excel Behavior:
Text is left-aligned by default. Formulas treat it as non-numeric unless converted.
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🔢 2. Numbers (Values)
🔢 What is it?
Numbers are used for mathematical operations and calculations in Excel.
🔹 Examples:
📌 Excel Behavior:
Numbers are right-aligned by default. You can format them as currency, percentage, decimal, etc.
✅ Common formats:
🧠 Tip: Avoid adding commas or special characters manually. Use Excel’s formatting tools.
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📅 3. Dates and Times
📅 What is it?
Dates and times are stored as serial numbers but displayed in readable formats.
🔹 Examples:
28-Jun-2025
06/28/2025
10:30 AM
📌 Excel Behavior:
Dates are actually numbers under the hood! For example:
28-Jun-2025 = 45132 in Excel
✅ This lets you subtract dates to calculate durations or apply filters by time periods.
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⚠️ Why Data Types Matter
✔️ Sorting and Filtering depend on correct types
✔️ Formulas like =SUM() or =AVERAGE() ignore text
✔️ Date functions (=TODAY(), =DATEDIF(), etc.) won’t work unless the value is a true date
✔️ Wrong data type = wrong result!
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🧪 Try It Yourself!
🧩 Open a blank Excel sheet and type:
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✅ Summary
Understanding data types is the key to:
📊 Accurate calculations
🔍 Meaningful analysis
📅 Working with time-based data
📑 Clean, reliable spreadsheets
