For effectiveness and brevity, we have two winners:

Dana, for =MOD(A1,1e10), although I haven't a clue why the thing works.

And, Ron Rosenfeld for =TEXT(RIGHT(A1,10),"00000-00000")

Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions.



One option would be to use:
=MOD(A1,1e10)

and custom format as "00000-00000"

--
HTH. :)
Dana DeLouis
Windows XP, Office 2003


"JoeSpareBedroom" wrote in message
...
I have a column of UPC numbers, most of which are 10 characters, which is
all we need for our purposes. But, some contain an 11th check digit at the
beginning, which we do NOT want, since it interferes somewhat with reading
accuracy.

Examples:
Some look like: 3600012345
Others look like: 73600012345

I want to remove the 7, and also split the remaining 10 digits with a
dash, so we get this:
36000-12345

No calculation is ever done with these characters - they're used only as
text. I know how to use the RIGHT() & LEFT() functions, so I can strip
off the chars I want, but I do NOT know how to have Excel check to see if
there are 11 digits and automatically get rid of the first one. I can do
it in Access or Paradox, but I'd rather not add an extra chore, since
I'll be receiving these files once a week. I suppose I could sort the
whole list, which would put all the 11-char string in one place, and then
use two different string formulae to handle the different groups, but
that's not very elegant.

Help!