Question

I would like to add some data validation on a cell in the latest Excel. I would like to force the user to enter a string that is two-char long, with the first char a digit, and the second char a letter.

e.g.

1m
2m
9w
8y

How would you do that?

Also, if a lower case letter is entered, i’d like to render it an upper case letter when the input is finished.

Answer 1

Only for the first part (no VBA needed), you can use Data Validation:

• Select the cell you want to check (A1 for instance)
• In the Ribbon, go to Data > Data Validation
• In the Allow:, choose Custom
• In the field, put this formula: =IF(AND(LEN(A1)=2,ISNUMBER(VALUE(LEFT(A1,1))),ISTEXT(RIGHT(A1,1))),TRUE,FALSE)
• In the tab Error Alert, change the dialog to explain to the user what he should do, something like:

You have to enter a number followed by a letter.

Btw, you could add a check with an UPPERCASE test.

[EDIT] Also have a look at brettj’s answer for a similar but optimized solution