Hi,

First, you can't change a number to text by changing the format.

Second, Excel does not store 11 decimals but up to 15, here are some limits
from Excel's help:

Number precision 15 digits
Smallest allowed negative number -2.2251E-308
Smallest allowed positive number 2.2251E-308
Largest allowed positive number 9.99999999999999E+307
Largest allowed negative number -9.99999999999999E+307
Largest allowed positive number via formula 1.7976931348623158e+308
Largest allowed negative number via formula -1.7976931348623158e+308

The reason you are seeing 1.23457E+13 is because the format of the cell
and/or column width is such that the number is being displayed in scientific
notation. To see your number as 12345678901111 simply widen the column and
choose Format, Cells, Number and set the decimals to 0.

The only time you need to format a cell as Text is if the number is longer
than 15 digits or there are leading 0's you want to retain. If that is the
case the easiest way to convert the numbers to text is to use a formula such
as =A1&"", copy it down and then copy all the formulas and paste them as
values. Then get rid of the original numbers.


--
If this helps, please click the Yes button.

Cheers,
Shane Devenshire


"Woody" wrote:

Sorry to trouble you again. I only gave you part of the problem because I
was trying to keep it simple. However, the data for the file I am talking
about comes in from a .CSV file.

The field I am talking about has very long numbers, 14 characters. for one
cell, the number up at the top area of Excel reads like this: 12345678901111.
But, in the cell itself, it looks like this: 1.23457E+13. This is the value
I am trying to get rid of. I want it to read like this: 12345678901111.
Formatting to text does not solve the problem. It still looks like
1.23457E+13. I thought, fine, I format it to a number first, then format it
to a text. When I format it to a number, the E+13 goes away, but when I then
format that to a text, believe it or not, the funny number comes back again
(1.23457E+13). Any thoughts on what's happening?

It is strange to me that I am having this problem in the first place because
the number are surrounded by double quotation marks in the csv file. That is,
I can open the csv file in Notepad and see that these numbers are surrounded
with quotes. Why Excel insists on bringing them in as numbers I don't know.

Any thoughts