How to use the TEXT function

Format a number or date as text in a pattern you control — for labels, sentences, and reports.

The formula

How it works

TEXT applies a format code to a value and returns the result as TEXT: 1234.5 with the code "$#,##0.00" becomes "$1,234.50". The codes are the same language as custom number formats — "0.0%" for percentages, "yyyy-mm-dd" for dates, "+0;-0;0" to force a sign, "[h]:mm" for durations. Its main use is building strings where a raw number would look wrong: ="Total: "&TEXT(A2,"$#,##0"). Remember the output is text, so it won't sum or sort as a number afterward — when you only need the LOOK and still need to calculate, format the cell instead of using TEXT.

Verified, not just documented

We ran =TEXT(A2,"$#,##0.00") in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3 (headless, with forced recalculation) and it returned $1,234.50 — exactly the expected result. We then ran the same formulas in Google Sheets, executed 2026-08-30: a formula-only workbook goes into Google Drive, which converts it to a Sheet and recalculates every formula with Google’s own engine, and comes back out as .xlsx carrying the values Google computed. It returned $1,234.50 for the worked example, the same value LibreOffice produced. Both engines’ numbers on this page are executed results. The Excel formula follows Microsoft’s official documented syntax — we do not run desktop Excel.

Functions used

TEXT — see full Excel, Google Sheets & LibreOffice compatibility for each.

Related recipes

• How to abbreviate large numbers as K and M
• How to add leading zeros to a number
• How to concatenate a date with text (without getting a number)
• How to convert 12-hour text times to 24-hour
• How to convert a date to text

Related comparisons

• TEXT() vs cell formatting: same codes, different consequences