Hi all, is there a way to show the line over the repeating decimal?

For example, if I change a cell to a decimal format, type in 1/3 and press
enter I get 0.333333333etc. If I were handwriting it I could represent the
decimal as 0.3 with a line over the 3. Is there a way to do that in Excel for
repeating decimals? There are other fractions that when converted are
repeating decimals as well.

Thanks!
-Brian

Hi Brian,

Yes, there is a way to show the line over the repeating decimal in Excel. Here's how you can do it:

1. Type in the decimal number in a cell, for example,
   Formula:

   0.333333333 

   .
2. Select the cell and right-click on it. Choose "Format Cells" from the menu.
3. In the "Format Cells" dialog box, select the "Number" tab.
4. In the "Category" list, select "Custom".
5. In the "Type" field, enter the following format code: 0.0Ì… (Note: the line over the 0 is created by typing ALT+0173 on the numeric keypad)
6. Click "OK" to apply the format.

Now, the cell will display the repeating decimal with a line over the repeating digits. You can use this format for other repeating decimals as well.

XL can't know that the value 1/3 has infinitely repeating decimals.
Especially since XL stores values in binary representation rather than
decimal.

*All* fractional values terminate when using IEEE double-precision
floating point math, since the values are stored in a finite number of
bits. So there's no way to determine whether a value that appears to
repeat indefinitely does repeat, or whether it's a terminating fraction
that is marginally larger or smaller.

I don't think there's any way of formatting a line over a digit. One
might be able to use a font with that character, and produce it as Text.


In article ,
Brian17 wrote:

Hi all, is there a way to show the line over the repeating decimal?

For example, if I change a cell to a decimal format, type in 1/3 and press
enter I get 0.333333333etc. If I were handwriting it I could represent the
decimal as 0.3 with a line over the 3. Is there a way to do that in Excel for
repeating decimals? There are other fractions that when converted are
repeating decimals as well.

Thanks!
-Brian