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Excel 2008 automatically removes the number "0"
- Thread starter celticpride678
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yellow
Moderator emeritus
Where? Written how? Anywhere in the cell, or at the beginning or the end?
You're missing a whole load in info here.
swiftaw
macrumors 603
Typically Excel removes the "0" at the beginning of a number in a number formatted cell
One way to overcome this (IIRC) is to start with an apostrophe '
'01132 instead of 01132
Woof, Woof - Dawg
Yes starting with a ' will make the cell a text cell rather than a number cell.
MacDawg
Moderator emeritus
Unfortunately, I have found that sometimes Excel thinks it knows better than I do what I need, and when I format the cell as text and then enter a number it autoformats it back to number 😱.
And alternately, when I enter the number first and then go to format the cell to text I have already lost my zero.
It is always quicker for me to just put the ' in there and forget it!
Woof, Woof - Dawg
arkitect
macrumors G3
yellow
Moderator emeritus
And it doesn't? Speak quietly, it might hear you... 🙂
Great tip, thanks for sharing!
Just be careful with using ', as it does make it a text formatted cell - i.e. that value will not be computed in certain formulas. I ran into that not too long ago where a few random cells in a column had been set as text via ' - and it took a few minutes to track down why the totals didn't seem quite right...
Otherwise though, it's a quick and easy way of showing a zero...