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Excel: How To Convert a Column Letter (e.g. C) to a Column Number (3) without Using Indirect?

My current solution is =COLUMN(INDIRECT(letter&"1")) but there must be a way to avoid the volatile Indirect function.

I found this formula: = IF(ROW()>26,(IF(MOD(ROW(),26)=0,CHAR((ROW()-1)/26+64)&CHAR(MOD(ROW()-1,26)+65), CHAR(ROW()/26+64)&CHAR(MOD(ROW(),26)+64))),CHAR(ROW()+64)) to convert a number to a column letter, but how to do it the other way round?