Data Types and Cell Content

Every new cell in Excel defaults to General format — a flexible catch-all that guesses what you mean.

The five types you'll use constantly, and how to tell them apart at a glance:

1. General (default): no specific format assigned;
2. Text: left-aligned — never used in calculations;
3. Number: right-aligned — used in calculations;
4. Currency: monetary values with symbol, number with financial formatting applied;
5. Date: calendar dates (stored as integers), enables sorting, subtraction, and time math.

Every date is stored as an integer — a serial number counting days since January 1, 1900. The "date format" is just a display mask on top of that integer. This is why you can subtract dates, sort them chronologically, and calculate time differences.

Because dates are numbers, date arithmetic is just subtraction. =B2-A2 where both cells hold dates gives you the number of days between them. No special function needed.

The ### Symbol

When a cell shows ###, the value is correct but the column is too narrow to display it. This happens most often with dates and currency values.
Fix: double-click the column border in the header row to auto-fit, or drag the border to widen manually. The data itself is untouched.

What else can a cell hold?

Beyond typed values, Excel cells can contain three other types of content — each inserted from the Insert tab, Illustrations group:

1. Image: a photo or graphic inserted from your device or online. Floats over the grid — not bound to a single cell unless you use "Place in cell" (Excel 365);
2. Icon: a scalable vector icon from Excel's built-in library. Unlike images, icons are resolution-independent and can be recolored. Insert via Insert → Icons;
3. Hyperlink: a clickable link to a URL, file, email address, or location within the same workbook. Insert with Ctrl+K. The cell displays display text; the actual URL lives in the link target. Useful for linking to source documents or external resources.

Find & Replace

Find & Replace lets you correct the entire dataset in seconds — and it respects your current selection, so you can scope it to a single column.