Excel question, should be simple
 

My brother is working on a spreadsheet and imported some data from a program (.csv file) and wants to add some formulas to the sheet. The problem is that Excel doesn't recognize the numbers as numbers unless you manually remove the commas (you don't have to retype the number, just delete the commas). I tried formatting the columns as numbers but it doesn't change anything.

This has to be a simple fix common problem. Thanks,

Highlight the cells with the comma, then select Edit > Replace and enter a comma for Find what: and leave the Replace with: box empty.

Thanks, that was it. I appreciate the help and feel silly for not thinking of it.

Did you import the CSV or just open it with Excel? If you import it is should see the comma as a separator and drop them from the field. Unless of course you are having issue with it recognizing numbers like 5,242. If so i think anotherblack944 has you covered.