Excel Feet To Inches

February 26, 2002 - by Bill Jelen

I have an Excel spreadsheet with a column of lengths in the format of 12' 6 7/8". How can I use Excel to convert this to decimal feet? I don't want to split the column into two parts. Then, how can I convert back to feet and inches in Excel?.

The custom function feet() shown below will take a text field in the format that you describe and convert it to decimal feet.

The custom function LenText will convert a decimal number of feet into a text field showing feet, inches, and fractional inches to the nearest 1/32".

To enter the custom function:

• Start the VB editor with alt-F11.
• Insert>Module.
• Insert>Procedure.
• Type feet as the name of the procedure and indicate it is a function.

• Then, copy the following code:

  Public Function feet(LenString As String)
      Dim FootSign As Integer
      Dim InchSign As Integer
      Dim SpaceSign As Integer
      Dim FracSign As Integer
      Dim InchString As String
      Dim Word2 As String
      ' Copyright 1999, 2005 MrExcel.com
      LenString = Application.WorksheetFunction.Trim(LenString)
      'The find function returns an error when the target is not found
      'Resume Next will prevent VBA from halting execution.
      On Error Resume Next
      FootSign = Application.WorksheetFunction.Find("'", LenString)
      If IsEmpty(FootSign) Or FootSign = 0 Then
          ' There are no feet in this expression
          feet = 0
          FootSign = 0
      Else
          feet = Val(Left(LenString, FootSign - 1))
      End If
  
      ' Handle the case where the foot sign is the last character
      If Len(LenString) = FootSign Then Exit Function
      ' Isolate the inch portion of the string
      InchString = Application.WorksheetFunction.Trim(Mid(LenString, FootSign + 1))
      ' Strip off the inch sign, if there is one
      InchSign = Application.WorksheetFunction.Find("""", InchString)
      If Not IsEmpty(InchSign) Or InchSign = 0 Then
          InchString = Application.WorksheetFunction.Trim(Left(InchString, InchSign - 1))
      End If
    
      ' Do we have two words left, or one?
      SpaceSign = Application.WorksheetFunction.Find(" ", InchString)
      If IsEmpty(SpaceSign) Or SpaceSign = 0 Then
          ' There is only one word here.  Is it inches or a fraction?
          FracSign = Application.WorksheetFunction.Find("/", InchString)
          If IsEmpty(FracSign) Or FracSign = 0 Then
              'This word is inches
              feet = feet + Val(InchString) / 12
          Else
              ' This word is fractional inches
              feet = feet + (Val(Left(InchString, FracSign - 1)) / Val(Mid(InchString, FracSign + 1))) / 12
          End If
      Else
          ' There are two words here.  First word is inches
          feet = feet + Val(Left(InchString, SpaceSign - 1)) / 12
          ' Second word is fractional inches
          Word2 = Mid(InchString, SpaceSign + 1)
          FracSign = Application.WorksheetFunction.Find("/", Word2)
          If IsEmpty(FracSign) Or FracSign = 0 Then
              ' Return an error
              feet = "VALUE!"
          Else
              If FracSign = 0 Then
                  feet = "VALUE!"
              Else
                  feet = feet + (Val(Left(Word2, FracSign - 1)) / Val(Mid(Word2, FracSign + 1))) / 12
              End If
          End If
      End If
  End Function

• Repeat for the function called LenText. Use this code:

  Public Function LenText(FeetIn As Double)
      ' This function will change a decimal number of feet to the text string
      ' representation of feet, inches, and fractional inches.
      ' It will round the fractional inches to the nearest 1/x where x is the denominator.
      ' Copyright 1999 MrExcel.com
      Denominator = 32 ' must be 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, etc.
      NbrFeet = Fix(FeetIn)
      InchIn = (FeetIn - NbrFeet) * 12
      NbrInches = Fix(InchIn)
      FracIn = (InchIn - NbrInches) * Denominator
      Numerator = Application.WorksheetFunction.Round(FracIn, 0)
      If Numerator = 0 Then
          FracText = ""
      ElseIf InchIn >= (11 + (31.4999999 / 32)) Then
          NbrFeet = NbrFeet + 1
          NbrInches = 0
          FracText = ""
      ElseIf Numerator = Denominator Then
          NbrInches = NbrInches + 1
          FracText = ""    
      Else
          Do
              ' If the numerator is even, divide both numerator and divisor by 2
              If Numerator = Application.WorksheetFunction.Even(Numerator) Then
                  Numerator = Numerator / 2
                  Denominator = Denominator / 2
              Else
                  FracText = " " & Numerator & "/" & Denominator
                  Exit Do
              End If
          Loop    
      End If
      LenText = NbrFeet & "' " & NbrInches & FracText & """"
  End Function

Column A shows the original text. Column B correctly converts to feet any values that contain feet, inches, and / or fractional inches.

Note that if you do not include the foot sign, the value is assumed to be inches. (row 12). If the fractional portion of the inches is not valid, Value! is returned (row 13).

Note: Thanks to Dale Richmond from Kansas City who provided an update in October 2007 to prevent an answer of 1 foot 12 inches when a number greater than 1.999 is passed to the function.