Single Quote - Excel 2007Solved/Closed

Question

Hi, 

Does anyone know what the single quotation mark ' means when entered at the beginning of a cell?

I notice that the quotation mark does not actually appear in the cell. In other words, it appears in the formula bar when entered but disappears from the cell once you press enter. 

I want to to get rid of that. I need a single quote at the beginning! 

System Configuration: Windows XP / Safari 532.5

rizvisa1 · Accepted Answer

Hi, 

That means the value being enter is text. It is like if you want to write 001 in a cell, generally Excel would convert it to 1 but if you write it as '001 it will stay as 001.

odeaad · Answer

A single quote in excel is used to maintain formatting of the data enterd in the field. Or better yet, to ignore formatting and read it as text.

For example, if you want to enter ( = $5.00 ), excel will assume you are trying to enter a formula and will return an error. If you wish to display the data as it appears above you must enter a ( ' ) at the begining.

'= $5.00

when you hit enter, the (') will disappear, displaying only the text after the apostrophe 

= $5.00

Hope I didn't make that too complicated.

roog · Answer

So how do you get rid of that annoying disappearing single quote? Disable 'smart quotes'? I can't find it in excel 2007.

TrowaD · Answer

Just type two single quotes.

Mehul · Answer

Or 

Type in an additional inverted comma in the beginning. One will be hidden and the additional will be visible.

For example, if you want to type in '500 in your cell, type ''500. Excel will take off one inverted comma and you will see '500 in your cell.

Hope it helps.

FLAWLESSVW · Answer

To get RID of the leading (hidden) sinlge-quote, paste into Notepad, then paste back into Excel but this time "Paste Values" (right-click, Paste, choose the "123" paste option for Values).  Works like a charm.

Single Quote - Excel 2007

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