Cell format Issue

  • Thread starter Thread starter marlon
  • Start date Start date
M

marlon

When enter 899405090111023400
in my excell sheet, it always convert to 899405090111023000
why is this? changing cell format doesn't help
 
marlon said:
When enter 899405090111023400 in my excell sheet,
it always convert to 899405090111023000
why is this?
Click to expand...

Because Excel treats that as a number. On data entry, Excel will convert
only the first 15 significant digits. Moreover, Excel will display only the
15 significant digits.

changing cell format doesn't help
Click to expand...

Actually, it does -- if you format the cell as Text before entering data.
Alternative, type an apostrophe (single quote) before the first digit. That
will cause Excel to treat the data entry as text, even if the cell is
formatted as General or a numeric format.

This presumes that you do not intend to use the number in arithmetic
expressions, but instead the number is really as identifier (product number,
transaction number, etc).

If you do intend to use the number in arithmetic expressions, you are almost
SOL. For some numbers, there are ways to enter more than 15-digit
precision. But the result is really an approximation anyway; and as I
indicated, success depends on the number.
 
Excel handles up to 15 digits.
Micky
 
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