I have some rack locations in a warehouse but I need the format to show with
hyphens. 12-01-011A And I cannot seem to get any of the custom cell formats
to work for me. Any ideas?

"Jim" wrote in message
...
I have some rack locations in a warehouse but I need the format to show
with
hyphens. 12-01-011A And I cannot seem to get any of the custom cell
formats
to work for me. Any ideas?

You can use custom formats for numerical data, but for a text string the
cell format will not affect the display. You may wish to derive a formula
for concatenation in a helper column, and display that.
--
David Biddulph

won't work with custom formats, you need a helper column, if you interest
then post back we will provide you with the formula

"Jim" wrote:

I have some rack locations in a warehouse but I need the format to show with
hyphens. 12-01-011A And I cannot seem to get any of the custom cell formats
to work for me. Any ideas?

are the numbers in text or are they numeric?
with the final A it apears they are text
do you build them from other cells or do you just type them in?
if you type them in, what do you want to type in to get the results you want?
Do all of the locations have exactly the same number of characters?

(Don't you hate it when you ask if something can be done, and the standard
response is "what do you want done?")

"Jim" wrote:

I have some rack locations in a warehouse but I need the format to show with
hyphens. 12-01-011A And I cannot seem to get any of the custom cell formats
to work for me. Any ideas?

Yes, all locations have exactly the same number of characters. And I was
given the list of locations without the hyphens. I am going to be using
another program with ODBC to create a specific barcoded label for each
location. The locations were given to me like: 1201011A I need it to display
as 12-01-011A I do not know much about excel. There are only 4 different
letter options at the end of my locations: A,B,C,T. Any help would be
appreciated.

"bj" wrote:

are the numbers in text or are they numeric?
with the final A it apears they are text
do you build them from other cells or do you just type them in?
if you type them in, what do you want to type in to get the results you want?
Do all of the locations have exactly the same number of characters?

(Don't you hate it when you ask if something can be done, and the standard
response is "what do you want done?")

"Jim" wrote:

I have some rack locations in a warehouse but I need the format to show with
hyphens. 12-01-011A And I cannot seem to get any of the custom cell formats
to work for me. Any ideas?

With data in B1 then in C1:

=TEXT(LEFT(B1,7),"00-00-000") & RIGHT(B1)

copy down

You can then copy/paste special-values (in column C) and then delete column
B (if required).

HTH

"Jim" wrote:

Yes, all locations have exactly the same number of characters. And I was
given the list of locations without the hyphens. I am going to be using
another program with ODBC to create a specific barcoded label for each
location. The locations were given to me like: 1201011A I need it to display
as 12-01-011A I do not know much about excel. There are only 4 different
letter options at the end of my locations: A,B,C,T. Any help would be
appreciated.

"bj" wrote:

are the numbers in text or are they numeric?
with the final A it apears they are text
do you build them from other cells or do you just type them in?
if you type them in, what do you want to type in to get the results you want?
Do all of the locations have exactly the same number of characters?

(Don't you hate it when you ask if something can be done, and the standard
response is "what do you want done?")

"Jim" wrote:

I have some rack locations in a warehouse but I need the format to show with
hyphens. 12-01-011A And I cannot seem to get any of the custom cell formats
to work for me. Any ideas?

try =left(A1,2)&"-"&mid(A1,3,2)&"-"&Right(A1,4)

"Jim" wrote:

Yes, all locations have exactly the same number of characters. And I was
given the list of locations without the hyphens. I am going to be using
another program with ODBC to create a specific barcoded label for each
location. The locations were given to me like: 1201011A I need it to display
as 12-01-011A I do not know much about excel. There are only 4 different
letter options at the end of my locations: A,B,C,T. Any help would be
appreciated.

"bj" wrote:

are the numbers in text or are they numeric?
with the final A it apears they are text
do you build them from other cells or do you just type them in?
if you type them in, what do you want to type in to get the results you want?
Do all of the locations have exactly the same number of characters?

(Don't you hate it when you ask if something can be done, and the standard
response is "what do you want done?")

"Jim" wrote:

I have some rack locations in a warehouse but I need the format to show with
hyphens. 12-01-011A And I cannot seem to get any of the custom cell formats
to work for me. Any ideas?