Since Excel's primary function is to handle numerical data, the General number format displays numbers exactly as they are typed without any formatting.

When you type a seven-or-ten-digit phone number into an Excel cell that uses the phone number format, Excel will automatically change the way the number looks so that it appears as a phone number ...

If the Excel cell format is not changing to a number because the Number formatting is not working, take these steps to fix the issue.

Similarly, it's easy to forget to type the currency symbol when you're focusing on the numbers that follow, so using Excel's built-in number format converter is the way forward.