clr said:
You can't really. Any string of digets with a leading
zero is NOT a number, it isTEXT.
Dovetailing Chuck's comments, the point is: it should be __entered__ as
text. This can be done one of several ways, depending on the data source.
1. Manually enter the account numbers with a leading apostrophe (aka single
quote). The apostrophe is not considered part of the date; but it does tell
Excel to treat the characters as text.
2. Format the cell as Text before entering the account numbers.
3. Select Text format when using the Import Data wizard.
4. If you already have numbers, enter a formula like
=TEXT(A1,"0000000000000000") in a parallel column,
copy-and-paste-special-value the new column over the old column, and delete
the new column.
But having said all that....
Exactly how are you "taking the raw data from Excel", and what do you mean
by "another system": application or computer?
Even though you do need to solve the problem of preserving leading zeros in
Excel, as explained above, that might not solve your real problem, namely:
preserving leading zero when you input the "raw data" into "another system".
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