Formula Watch: Quickly CONVERT measurements in Excel

If you've ever need to translate Celsius to Fahrenheit, miles to kilometers, or teaspoons to cups, all you need is the handy CONVERT function in Excel.

Simply enter your value, its measurement unit, and the target unit for conversion, and you'll get your answer. Here are some useful examples:

=CONVERT(30.4,"C","F")

=CONVERT(65,"mi","km")

=CONVERT(10,"tsp","cup")

You don't need to memorize all of the units that are available. Just type "=CONVERT(" followed by the value. When you enter the comma to move to the units section of the function, you'll see a list of available units to choose from in the formula bar:

Use the scrollbar to find your unit and either double click or click + TAB to select it. Then enter another comma after the unit's close quote to bring up the list again to select your target unit, and then close the parenthesis and hit Enter.

Just be sure that the units you select for both are related measurements or you'll get an error. You can't convert years to pounds, for instance. Fortunately, Excel usually constrains the list of available measures to ones that match your starting unit:

Note that not all available units may be listed. When converting miles, I only found meters - but changing the "m" to "km" resulted in conversion to kilometers.

Suzanne