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Summing values formatted for a different locale
A couple of year ago a user of Super User reported difficulties with summing values purporting to be Euros imported to LibreOffice Calc in CSV format.
In the Q the user does not mention the locale settings, but did write "I've used the LEFT function to get just the number part, though that still leaves me with a string." Some sample data was provided, but not its location so assuming the following:
and , to separate thousands, . for decimal, how to determine the sum of the above text-format amounts?
1 answer
LEFT returns a text value, so it's working as expected. You might put the LEFT function inside VALUE function to convert the value returned by LEFT into a number. This applies to other spreadsheet apps like Google Sheets.
NOTES:
- Countries that use Euros as their local currency use a dot as a thousand separator and commas as a decimal separator. The above assumes that the spreadsheet is set to a country that uses Euros as currency.
- If your spreadsheet is set to use separators the other way, then use
SUBSTITUTEto replace the comma with a dot.
References
- Documentation/How Tos/Calc: LEFT function
- Documentation/How Tos/Calc: SUBSTITUTE function
- Documentation/How Tos/Calc: VALUE function
Notes
Based on my answer posted in Super User to the question that inspired this question a few moments ago.
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