You are reading a single comment by @ChainBreaker and its replies. Click here to read the full conversation.
  • @ChainBreaker if it is white space then =trim(data) may remove some of it, if not you can use the substitute function as well.

    didnt work

    further info - it seems to like [$-409]dd-mmmm-yy;@ when i select custom - doubt it means anything but hey... thought id add more info

  • Google reckons that's a locale code...
    https://stackoverflow.com/questions/894805/excel-number-format-what-is-409

    If bad data is in A1, what does
    =mid(a1,1,1) return?

    Does it look like it returns the first character?

    If it looks like it returns nothing then that's probably the hidden character

    So try
    =mid(a1,2,1) etc.

    then if you've got good data from position 2 onwards then you could always do
    =mid(a1,2,len(a1)-2)

    which would have the effect of stripping the first and last characters, and leaving the good bit in the middle.

    basically - find where the shit data is and exclude it

About