How about: 00"-"0"-"00000"-"0
best wishes
--
Bernard V Liengme
Microsoft Excel MVP
http://people.stfx.ca/bliengme
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"N.F. Jackson" <N.F. wrote in message
...
I need to format cells for a case number of 9 digits, with hyphens as
indicated:

##-#-#####-# (we need to key in 9 digits and have the hyphens inserted)

Where the first two may ormay not be zeros and where the third set of five
may have leading zeros.

E.g. 97-3-00123-4 or 00-8-12345-6 or 08-1-00001-6