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How to only allow alphanumeric characters entry in Excel?

For some special purposes, you may only allow the alphanumeric or numeric characters entry in a column, how can you do? In this article is going to introduce the ways to solve this problem in Excel.

Only allow alphanumeric characters entry with Data Validation

Only allow numeric characters entry with Data Validation

Only allow text entry with Data Validation

Not allow special characters entried with Kutools for Excelgood idea3

Remove all except alphanumeric character from string with Kutools for Excelgood idea3


Only allow alphanumeric characters entry with Data Validation

For only allowing alphanumeric characters entry in a column, you can follow below steps to handle it.

1. Select a column by clicking at the column header, for instance, column A, and click Data > Data Validation > Data Validation. See screenshot:

doc allow alphanumeric only 1

2. Then in the Data Validation dialog, under Settings tab, and select Custom from the Allow dropdown list,, and type this formula =ISNUMBER(SUMPRODUCT(SEARCH(MID(A1,ROW(INDIRECT("1:"&LEN(A1))),1),"0123456789abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ"))) into the Formula textbox. See screenshot:

Tip: In this formula, A1 is the first cell of your selected column, you can change it to you need.

doc allow alphanumeric only 2

3. Click OK, and now in column A, you only can type alphanumeric characters in it. If you enter non-alphanumeric characters into the cell, there will pop out a warning dialog.

doc allow alphanumeric only 3

Tip: If you only type * or ~ into the cells in column A, the warning dialog won’t display.


Only allow numeric characters entry with Data Validation

If you only allow numeric characters entry in a column, you can do as these:

1. Select the column you want to limit the entry, and click Data > Data Validation > Data Validation.

2. Then in the Data Validation dialog, select Custom from Allow dropdown list, and type this formula =ISNUMBER(B1) in the Formula textbox , and B1 is the first cell of your selected column. See screenshot:

doc allow alphanumeric only 4

3. Click OK, and then the selected column only allowed entry numeric characters.


Only allow text entry with Data Validation

To allow text entry in a column only, you can use a formula too.

1. Select the whole column you want to restrict, and click Data > Data Validation > Data Validation.

2. Select Custom from Allow list, and type this formula =ISTEXT(C1) (C1 is the first cell of the selected column) into Formula textbox. See screenshot:

doc allow alphanumeric only 5

3. Click OK to finish it.


Not allow special characters entried with Kutools for Excel

Prevent special character entering

Actually, you can apply Kutools for Excel’s Prevent Typing utility to prevent special characters entering and only allow such as alphanumeric characters typing.

Kutools for Excel, with more than 300 handy functions, makes your jobs more easier. 

After free installing Kutools for Excel, please do as below:

1. Select the cells you want to prevent special character typing, click Kutools > Prevent Typing > Prevent Typing. See screenshot:
doc prevent special character 1

2. In the Prevent Typing dialog, check Prevent type in special characters option, click Ok, and then there are two dialogs pops out to remind you something, click Yes > OK to continue the operation.
doc prevent special character 2
doc prevent special character 3shot arrow rightdoc prevent special character 4

Then in the selected cells, the special characters are not allowed to typed.
doc prevent special character 5


Remove all except alphanumeric character from string with Kutools for Excel

In some cases, you may want to remove all except alphanumeric characters from a mixed string, Kutools for Excel’s Remove Characters can do you a favor.

After free installing Kutools for Excel, please do as below:

1. Select the strings and click Kutools > Text > Remove Characters. See screenshot:

doc allow alphanumeric only 6

2. Then in the popping dialog, check Non-alphanumeric options, and you can preview the removing results from Preview pane. See screenshot:

doc allow alphanumeric only 7

3. Click Ok or Apply to execute the operation, and all the alphanumeric characters are deleted.

doc allow alphanumeric only 8


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Comments (7)
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This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
la funcion de validacion de datos se puede evitar por un usuario que copie y pegue, es decir, si yo tengo la validacion de datos para SOLO numeros, al querer escribir una letra sale el mensaje de error, pero si en lugar de escribirlo, copio y pego en valores o cualquiera, la validacion de datos se rompe
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Please help me to create rule for cell where string should be in mentioned format only "lastname, firstname"

Thanks in advance !
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
You can place your question in our forum https://www.extendoffice.com/forum.html,maybe someone can help you.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Please help. I need to make this data validation in a cell where the data they can type is
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
You mean that you want the cell contains the data validation, and also can be entered other values in it?
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Hi I was wondering, how would you set a alphanumeric value which starts with the same letters? For example, MX234, MX342 Thanks in advance
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Hi I was just wondering, how would you set a validation rule for alphnumeric values which start with the same letters for each row? For example, MX234, MX345 Thanks in advance
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