# Excel question - removing hyphens from telephone number lists

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-question-removing-hyphens-from-telephone-number-lists/612949>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [February 15, 2012, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-question-removing-hyphens-from-telephone-number-lists/612949 "2012-02-15T18:12:45Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 6\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2012, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-question-removing-hyphens-from-telephone-number-lists/612949/1 "2012-02-15T18:12:45Z")

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I receive a set of data that includes telephone numbers in the format 000-000-0000. I need to convert this column to just 10 digits without the hyphens.

Is there an Excel function that can do this?  
Roddy

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**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2012, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-question-removing-hyphens-from-telephone-number-lists/612949/2 "2012-02-15T18:38:01Z")

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Did you try a search and replace?

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**Author:** ![Mines\_Mystique](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mines\_Mystique](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mines_Mystique)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2012, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-question-removing-hyphens-from-telephone-number-lists/612949/3 "2012-02-15T18:40:18Z")

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Do a search and replace, with the ‘-’ as what you’re searching for and the replace field blank.

Just tested this and it worked just fine.

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**Author:** ![Chessic\_Sense](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7c8e57/32.png) [@Chessic\_Sense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chessic_Sense)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2012, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-question-removing-hyphens-from-telephone-number-lists/612949/4 "2012-02-15T18:43:33Z")

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If for some reason you can’t do a find&replace, just use something like “=Concatenate(Left(a2, 3), mid(a2, 5, 2), right(a2, 4))”.

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**Author:** ![zombywoof](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/9e8a1a/32.png) [@zombywoof](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zombywoof)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2012, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-question-removing-hyphens-from-telephone-number-lists/612949/5 "2012-02-15T18:45:15Z")

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An easier formula would be

=SUBSTITUTE(cell, “-”, “”)

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\
**Post date:** [February 15, 2012, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-question-removing-hyphens-from-telephone-number-lists/612949/6 "2012-02-15T18:53:37Z")

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Thanks, all. I will try these out.  
Roddy