How to Convert European Number Formats in Excel

NUMBERVALUE reads numbers like 1.234,56 or 12'500.75 by letting you say which character is the decimal and which is the separator.

You will learn to

• Convert comma-decimal numbers with NUMBERVALUE
• Handle a different group separator
• Convert and calculate in one formula

How it works

In much of Europe a comma is the decimal mark and a period groups thousands, so "1.234,56" means one thousand two hundred thirty-four and 56 cents. VALUE in a US-English Excel cannot read that. =NUMBERVALUE(text, decimal_separator, group_separator) lets you state the convention: =NUMBERVALUE("1.234,56",",",".") returns 1234.56.

The same function handles Swiss amounts such as "12'500.75" (decimal ".", group "'") and ignores spaces, so "12 400,00" works too. Once converted, the result is a normal number you can multiply by an exchange rate or total.

=NUMBERVALUE(C2,",",".")