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How to change – (dashes) to 0 (zeros) in Excel?

Author Siluvia Last modified

Supposing you have a range of data mixed with dashes, and now you want to change all dashes cells to zeros in Excel, what would you do? You can achieve this with the following methods we provide in this article.

Change – to 0 with Find and Replace in Excel
Change – to 0 with Kutools for Excel in Excel

Change – to 0 with Find and Replace in Excel

In this section, you can change all dashes to zeros in selected range with the Find and Replace command in Excel.

1. Select the range with the dashes cells you want to replace with zeros.

2. Press Ctrl + H keys simultaneously to open the Find and Replace dialog box. In this dialog box, under the Replace tab, enter – and 0 to the Find what and Replaces with boxes separately, Then click the Options button. See screenshot:

A screenshot showing the Find and Replace dialog in Excel

3. In the expanded section, check the Match entire cell contents box, and click the Replace All button.

A screenshot showing the expanded options in the Find and Replace dialog for matching entire cell contents

4. Click the OK button in the following popping up dialog box.

A screenshot of the confirmation dialog after replacing dashes with zeros in Excel

5. Close the Find and Replace dialog box.

Now all dashes in cells are replaced with zeros. See screenshots:

A screenshot of cells in Excel with dashes replaced by zeros

Change – to 0 with Kutools for Excel in Excel

With the Select Specific Cells utility of Kutools for Excel, you can quickly select all cells which contain dashes and then change all dashes to zeros with shortcuts.

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1. Select the range with the dashes cells you want to change to 0. And click Kutools > Select > Select Specific Cells.

A screenshot showing the Kutools Select Specific Cells option in Excel

2. In the Select Specific Cells dialog box, select the Cell option in the Selection type section, select Equals in the Specific type drop-down list, and enter – to the box. Finally click the OK button. See screenshot:

A screenshot of the Select Specific Cells dialog in Kutools, configured to select cells containing dashes in Excel

3. Now all cells with dashes are selected immediately. Then enter the number 0 directly, and press the Ctrl + Enter keys simultaneously.

Then all selected cell contents are changed to 0 at once.

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