I have a coulmn with numbers, but they are formatted as text.


ESN #s
268435456106743252

But when I format it to numbers, I get the following error:

2.68435E+17

This also creates a problem since this process also zeros out the last
three digits:

268435456106743000 (the 252 are now replaced as 000)

Does anyone know way to correct this?

Thanks in advance!




--
moyemrick

preface the 268435456106743252 with a ' or retain the format as text.

You can't format as "number" as Excel only supports 15 significant digits.

moyemrick wrote:

I have a coulmn with numbers, but they are formatted as text.


ESN #s
268435456106743252

But when I format it to numbers, I get the following error:

2.68435E+17

This also creates a problem since this process also zeros out the last
three digits:

268435456106743000 (the 252 are now replaced as 000)

Does anyone know way to correct this?

Thanks in advance!

If the cell is preformatted to text, then the existing entry won't change when
you change the number format (to general).

But if you make a change to that cell, then excel will treat the entry as a
number. And excel only keeps track of 15 significant digits.

So you'll have to keep the numberformat as Text (or start the entry with an
apostrophe) to see all the digits.



moyemrick wrote:

I have a coulmn with numbers, but they are formatted as text.

ESN #s
268435456106743252

But when I format it to numbers, I get the following error:

2.68435E+17

This also creates a problem since this process also zeros out the last
three digits:

268435456106743000 (the 252 are now replaced as 000)

Does anyone know way to correct this?

Thanks in advance!

--
moyemrick

--

Dave Peterson