Data type changes in Power BI - Cell-by-Cell Formula Trace

Sample Data

This table shows sales amounts in column A as numbers and in column B as text strings representing the same numbers.

Cell	Value
A1	SalesAmount
A2	1000
A3	2000
A4	3000
B1	SalesAmountText
B2	1000
B3	2000
B4	3000

Formula Trace

SalesAmountNumber = VALUE('Table'[SalesAmountText])

Step 1: VALUE('Table'[SalesAmountText]) for B2 = "1000"

Step 2: VALUE('Table'[SalesAmountText]) for B3 = "2000"

Step 3: VALUE('Table'[SalesAmountText]) for B4 = "3000"

Cell Reference Map

    A           B
1 | SalesAmount | SalesAmountText
2 |    1000    |    "1000"    
3 |    2000    |    "2000"    
4 |    3000    |    "3000"    

The formula references the SalesAmountText column (cells B2 to B4) which contains numbers stored as text.

Result

    A           B               C
1 | SalesAmount | SalesAmountText | SalesAmountNumber
2 |    1000    |    "1000"      |      1000       
3 |    2000    |    "2000"      |      2000       
4 |    3000    |    "3000"      |      3000       

The new column SalesAmountNumber shows the text values converted to numbers using the VALUE function.

Sheet Trace Quiz - 3 Questions

What does the VALUE function do to the text "1000"?

A Converts it to the number 1000

B Leaves it as text "1000"

C Changes it to 0

D Removes the value

Key Result

VALUE(text_column) converts text values to numeric data type.