Excel cells can contain six different types of data. | Numbers | machine-precision double | | Dates | machine-precision double with special formatting | | Strings | unicode text | | Booleans | TRUE , FALSE | | Errors | #VALUE! , #REF! , ... | | Empty | empty cell |
Native Excel data types. Mathematica data types not natively supported by Excel can be stored as strings in a range formatted as Text. | Integer | 1 | | Rational | 1/2 | | Complex | 1 + 2 I | | Symbol | x | | Expression | x + y |
Mathematica data types that can be stored in text cells. To specify the format of a range, you can use the ExcelFormat function provided by the ExcelLink package. Or, from within Excel, you can select a format in the Format  Cell... Number pane or use the Expression toggle command provided by the MathematicaLink add-in. Notes • When using MathematicaLink worksheet functions, inputs are assumed to contain text expressions even if Text formatting has not been applied to input ranges. This assumption makes it easier to build Mathematica expressions. To use data as it is natively stored in Excel, wrap the reference to the data range with the DATA worksheet function. • When a number is stored as text in Excel, an error flag may appear on the cell. If you find these flags distracting, you can turn this type of error checking off in the Tools Options... Error Checking pane. |
