NUMBERVALUE in Excel: Parse Decimal and Group Separators

• Introduced: the Microsoft function catalogue marks this identity as an Excel 2013 addition. An exact first build or preview date is not established.
• Availability: official help lists Excel for Microsoft 365, Excel for Microsoft 365 for Mac, Excel 2024, Excel 2024 for Mac, Excel 2021, Excel 2021 for Mac, Excel 2019, Excel 2016.
• Checked: October 14, 2026; official NUMBERVALUE reference. Documentation and independent models; no native Excel execution or wider platform certification.

=NUMBERVALUE(text,[decimal_separator],[group_separator])

The decimal separator marks the fraction; the group separator separates digit groups. Only the first character of each supplied separator string is used. Ordinary spaces in the input are ignored, including internal spaces, and empty text converts to zero. These rules make the function a parser, not a strict validator of an invoice or identifier format.

A repeated decimal separator, grouping after the decimal separator, or invalid arguments gives documented #VALUE!. Trailing percent signs apply percentage scaling. Microsoft describes multiple percent signs as “additive,” but its explicit 9%% example is 0.0009: each percent operation divides by 100. Use that numerical rule rather than reading the word as addition.

Enter the following as text in A2:A5. Use a leading apostrophe when typing numeric-looking values; the apostrophe is an entry marker, not part of the stored text. Put each row’s separator characters in B and C.

In D2 enter and fill through D5:

=NUMBERVALUE(A2,B2,C2)

Then =SUM(D2:D5) gives 4750.76. The arithmetic is 1234.56 + 2345.70 + 1250.75 − 80.25. The third row succeeds because the ordinary internal space is ignored; this does not certify every Unicode space or arbitrary punctuation character.

A displayed 2345.7 and 2345.70 are the same numeric value. Apply cell number formatting if the report must display two decimal places.

These examples specify the separators rather than depending on your locale:

The first is 12.5/100, the second is 8/100/100. Applying Percentage formatting changes how the stored result is shown; it does not require another division by 100. Dividing the first result again would incorrectly produce 0.00125.

Suppose an import permits a genuinely missing amount but zero is a real amount. The parser alone converts "" to 0, losing that distinction. For the text inputs in A2, use a separate blank policy:

=IF(A2="","",NUMBERVALUE(A2,",","."))

For empty text this returns empty text; for the text 0 it returns numeric zero; for 25,50 it returns 25.5. The guard is a reporting decision, not a new NUMBERVALUE parsing rule. An actual blank cell and a formula returning empty text can require different provenance checks even when this equality guard treats both as missing.

Do not wrap every parsing error in zero. For example, =NUMBERVALUE("1,2,3",",",".") has two decimal separators and is documented to fail. =NUMBERVALUE("12,34.5",",",".") puts the grouping mark after the decimal mark and also fails. Keeping those failures visible distinguishes damaged input from a valid zero amount.

Keep the raw column beside the parsed values so a reviewer can reconstruct the conversion. Record the separator convention per source instead of guessing from a single row: 1,234 can mean 1234 or 1.234 under different conventions. NUMBERVALUE follows the convention supplied; it cannot know the author’s intention.

Use VALUE when interpreting text through the applicable locale is appropriate. Use ISNUMBER to test the converted result and SUM for the numeric column. Avoid applying numeric conversion to account numbers or identifiers whose leading zeros carry meaning.

• Microsoft NUMBERVALUE reference.
• Editorial testing standards.

Expected outputs are independently calculated examples or documented rules, not captured native Excel results. Formulas use English function names and comma argument separators. Locale, rendering and boundary restrictions are stated where relevant.