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If consumers are unfamiliar with using various forms of data in Excel, a variety of problems with understanding and computing data may occur. There are normally four basic types of formulas in Excel. Interesting? Join our 10-hours MS-Excel course- Here1 MS-Excel Complete PDF
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Now, Let us see the 4-different types of Data Types in MS Excel.
Table of contents
Numbers
Text Data Types
Logical Date Types
Error Data Types
Data Types in MS Excel
1. Numbers
All versions of Excel:
-
8-byte double
-
[signed] short [int] – used for Boolean values and also integers
-
unsigned short [int]
-
[signed long] int
Numerical values are essentially just numbers, such as 10, 65.76, $75, 76%, and 15,785, to put it simply. Excel, on the other hand, keeps track of numbers as Double-Precision Floating Point values, therefore figures there are frequently shown as decimal numbers that, if necessary, can have several decimal places. Excel is therefore able to hold both very small and very huge quantities. However, bear in mind that Excel only allows you to enter numbers with 15 significant digits; if you enter numbers with more, Excel will erase the additional digits on the right-hand side beginning with the 16th significant number and replace them with zeroes. The greatest and smallest positive and negative numbers that Excel can handle are shown in the following table (as of 2019).
Largest or Smallest |
Numeric data |
---|---|
Largest positive number |
9.9e+307 |
Smallest positive number |
1e-307 |
Largest negative number |
-1e-307 |
Smallest negative number |
-9.9e+307 |
Excel cells with numeric data types can contain numeric characters (0 to 9).
The following special characters can also be used for various reasons in addition to the numeric characters (0 to 9).
Characters allowed in numeric data type |
Purpose |
---|---|
+ |
Positive symbol |
- |
Negative symbol |
() |
Negative symbol |
% |
Percentage symbol |
. |
Decimal symbol |
, |
Decimal symbol |
E |
Exponential symbol |
e |
Exponential symbol |
When using various numerical data formats, it's crucial to distinguish the value of the number from the manner that Excel would display it. For instance, there are several ways to represent the number 2, such as a generic number (2), a currency symbol (2), or a percentage (20%).
2. Text Data Type
A combination of alphabetic, numeric, and special characters make up the text data in an Excel cell. String data is another name for text data. Numeric data is aligned to the cell's right side in Excel, whereas text data is aligned to the cell's left. Excel handles data in an Excel Cell that includes both alphabetic and numeric characters as text. There are no mathematical formulae that may be applied with the text data in that Cell. You could get the #VALUE! error if you attempt to execute any mathematical operation on text data contained in an Excel cell. If the right-side cells are empty and there is text in an Excel cell that is broader than the cell width, the text will spill over onto the right-side cells. When a right-side empty cell is later filled, Excel hides any spilled text before the data in the freshly full cell is revealed.
3. Logical Data Type
One of Excel's most potent features is the ability to employ logical data types and expressions. Frequently, logical values are represented as TRUE (or 1 in a Boolean value) or FALSE (or 0 in Boolean value). A certain function or expression will frequently result in the presentation of logical data. Logical data cannot be manually entered into Excel way numerical and text data can; instead, it appears as a result of an equation or function. A cell location's contents may be checked, conditions can be created and tested, and comparisons can be made using the logical data type.
4. Error Data Type
When using Microsoft Excel to handle data and assess a cell's contents, errors may happen.
An illustration of this would be if a user attempted to divide a number by zero, which is incorrect because it cannot be defined mathematically.
The Error Data Type enters the picture at this point.
Hash symbols with uppercase text and a symbol (often a question mark or an exclamation point) after that are frequently used to represent error data types.
Error data types frequently appear as a result of an error and cannot be explicitly entered, just as the logical data type.
Error data types are helpful in indicating a specific error in calculating or processing data, thus even if they do not reflect a specific value, you would need to correct it so that the error data type would no longer appear.