title: How to format text as a number using the Google Sheets API?
body: <p>I have a Google Sheet where info in column C is a number that is populated as a string.</p>
  
  <p><strong>Example</strong>: cell value is <strong>'35135.22</strong>.</p>
  
  <p>In a browser I can highlight column C &amp; select Format > Number > #,##0 and it will convert the string to an number and then format it. (example becomes 35,135)</p>
  
  <p>When I attempt to do this using the Google Sheet API (and python) using batchUpdate and numberFormat it does not convert the string to a number.  It does format the cell, but because the cell value is still a string, the formatting is ignored.</p>
  
  <p>How can I convert a string to a numerical value using the sheets api?</p>
  
  <p>(I have this same issue with dates that are populated from my data source as a string)</p>