How to Convert Excel Formula to Value (Quickly)

If your Excel sheet is falling behind in terms of speed (slow processing or hanging frequently), or if you want to keep the formulas of your sheet confidential – you must convert your Microsoft Excel formulas to values.

Doing so, the result of the formula is retained (as a value) but the formula itself is deleted.

Want to learn how to do that? In this guide, I will teach you multiple ways of converting formulas in Excel to values 👩‍🏫

Get your free sample workbook for this tutorial here and read until the end.

Table of Contents

Why do you need to convert an Excel formula into a value

Before I show you multiple methods of converting formulas to values, you must know why is this even needed.

Well, there can be a variety of reasons why you should replace Excel formulas with their results (if need be), including the following 👇

• From a collaborative point of view, sharing an Excel file with formulas running behind the face of it might bring you confidentiality issues.
• Excel formulas are very volatile, and there’s always a risk that some accidental clicks might distort the formulas you might have very smartly put up. Converting them to values locks them in place.
• Converting formulas to values helps data preservation, especially if they include references to other cells. Once converted to values, changes to other cells won’t affect your formula results.
• Formulas in Excel can slow down the performance of a spreadsheet, especially large and complex ones.
• Converting formulas to values rids Excel of the need to automatically recalculate the values. This improves the performance of your spreadsheet.
• Reduces the file size.
• If the Excel file is to be shared with other users who are not subscribed to the same version of Excel as you, formulas might create compatibility issues.

Hope these are reasons enough for you to learn all the possible methods to convert formulas in Excel 😃

Convert Excel formulas to Values using Paste Special

Do you know about the Paste Special options that let you copy formulas and paste them as values?

If not, follow me here. This is a list of numbers and I have used the SUM function to find their sum ➕

To replace this SUM formula with the results, follow these simple steps:

Step 1) Select the column containing the formulas.

Step 2) Press the Control key + C key to copy them.

Once they are copied, you’ll see a dotted green border around the copied cells.

Step 3) Select the first destination cell (from where onwards you want to populate the values) and right-click.

This will launch the drop-down menu of options.

Step 4) From Paste Options > Select Paste Values only (the 123 icon).

Tada! The formulas would be replaced by their results (values) 🎯

Convert Excel formulas to Values using Shortcut keys

If you want to replace formulas with results but are just too lazy to use the cursor for it – no worries.

You can perform all the above steps with your keyboard too ⌨

Step 1) Select the column of formulas by using the Control + C key.

Step 2) Go to the destination cell and press Shift + F10.

This launches the drop-down menu of options.

Step 3) Press the V key (the shortcut for paste as values only).

And you see the formulas replaced by their results.

Step 4) Alternatively, you can also use the shortcut of Alt > E > S > V to paste the formulas as values.

Be careful! The Alt > E > S >V are to be pressed sequentially (one after another) and not together.

Convert a part of the Excel formula to value

Not every time would you want to convert an entire formula into a value, but only a part of it.

This can be done in Excel using the F9 key 🚀

For example, I have the following formula in Excel that has multiple parts.

Step 1) Double-click on the cell to activate the formula in it.

Step 2) Select the part of the formula that you want to convert to value.

Step 3) Press the F9 key.

Doing so replaces the selected formula with its result (value).

The SUM function is replaced by its result i.e., 1290.54.

Step 4) Once this is done, press the enter key to exit the cell. The formula now looks like this.

The total result of the formula remains the same. Only the selected part is replaced with its calculated value 💪

Conclusion

Enjoyed learning quick hacks to convert your Excel formulas to values? It is useful in many ways. Most importantly, it makes your sheet easy-going in terms of size and less prone to accidental errors.

To learn more similar and super useful hacks, give the following Excel guides a quick read.

• How to Hide Formulas in Excel (But Still Show Data)
• How to Use Multiple Formulas in a Cell (Excel Guide)