"mike allen" wrote in message
...

i am faguely familiar w/ the "E" notation in math (scientific
format?), but it is causing me a problem and i need to know how to
re-fomat a number to NOT imply to be an "E" number. i asked a
question earlier about "if it looks like it is a match, it is a
match." well, i found out the problem and it is when an field
(nothing to do w/ math, science...) is brought in to a spreadsheet
and it fits the profile that can be reduced to scientific (6E+02),
excel does it. that messes everything up, though.
TRY THIS OUT...

type in 6004665102 in cell A1 (set column width = 7.5 w/ times new
roman at size 10 to see this ugly transformation to scientific).
then type in '6004665102 in cell B1 (must start w/ the hyphen to
eliminate transformation to scientific format; also can set column
width if you like). set both cells to format--cells--general just
so we are on even playing field.
write code:
Sub scientificjunk()
If Range("a1") = Range("b1") Then
MsgBox "they match!"
Else
MsgBox "something's wrong."
End If
End Sub

you can use: trim(B1) or B1.value, etc. all you want in code, but
you can't touch A1 since A1 is ultimately part of large array
brought in (maybe in text, maybe in html...). can you get it to say
"they match!"? without touching cell A1 in spreadsheet or qualifying
range("a1") in the code.
my main goal: how can i NOT have A1 revert to scientific when
downloaded? good luck, mike allen


Hi Mike,

Without going into everything you wrote, the simple reason why the
your code returns "something's wrong." is that the two cells *do not*
contain the same values.

A1 contains the number (integer) 6004665102 (a number being just over
6 billion).
A2 contains a string of 10 characters "6004665102" (a text string)

They are fundamentally different things as your code correctly informs
you.

The *format* that the number is displayed in has nothing to do with
it's value.


To prove that, put the same (number *not* the text string) value in A1
and B1 as you outline above, and format as you say. They both
*display* as 6e+02.

Now expand B1 to be wider (say 50 wide). It now *displays* as
6004665102.

Now run your code, and it will correctly tell you that they match.

HTH,

Alan.