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How to only allow alphanumeric characters entry in Excel?

Author Sun Last modified

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:

click Data > Data Validation > Data Validation

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.

set options in the Data Validation dialog

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.

Only alphanumeric characters are allowed to enter

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

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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:

set options in the Data Validation dialog to allow numeric characters entry

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:

set options in the Data Validation dialog to allow text entry

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 offers over 300 advanced features to streamline complex tasks, boosting creativity and efficiency. Itegarate with AI capabilities, Kutools automates tasks with precision, making data management effortless. Detailed information of Kutools for Excel...         Free trial...

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:
clcik Prevent Typing feature of kutools

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.
check Prevent type in special characters option
click yes in the first promt boxshot arrow rightclick ok in the second promt box

Then in the selected cells, the special characters are not allowed to typed.
the special characters are not allowed to be typed

  Prevent Special Characters Entering

 

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:

click Remove Characters feature of kutools

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

check Non-alphanumeric option in the dilaog box

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

all the alphanumeric characters are deleted

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