Take Control of Numbers

Text Functions

Say your friend/brother/boss gives you get an Excel sheet of names and addresses and says: “I need just a list of names (last name followed by a comma and then the first initial); the data came in a little weird and the state abbreviations need to be capitalized; the city, state, and zip code columns need to be combined with a comma (and space) after the city, and a space between the state and zip code, okay? And, oh, can you automatically generate an email address that each person will be assigned—it’s just the last name, the first two letters of the first name, and the company URL?”

Yes, you can do all these things—and easily, since Numbers lets you manipulate text in many ways. In this chapter, after you get acquainted with ...