See subject. I am using Office 2003 and wish to log series of 3 - 5 digit serial numbers and also record similar numbers in random order but excel persists in deleting leading zeros unless I enter the figures as as text. Thanks.
See subject. I am using Office 2003 and wish to log series of 3 - 5 digit serial numbers and also record similar numbers in random order but excel persists in deleting leading zeros unless I enter the figures as as text. Thanks.
A "number" with a leading zero IS text, not a real number. Entering it as TextFormat will preserve it's state. If you want to enter a "real number" and make it look like it has a leading zero, that can be done with Custom Formatting.
You must either enter them as text or custom format the cell. For example, Format/Cells/Number/Custom Type: "000" or "00000". If you custom format the cells as above, you will not need to enter the leading zero's. If you want to enter a variable number of leading zeros, unless there is some method of determining the correct number of leading zero's, you will have to enter as text.
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