I have a text string of 4-digit numbers separated by commas. When I paste
that string into a cell, Excel converts it to a number instead of
interpreting it as text. Can anyone explain why? I could understand if it
were 3-digit numbers separated by commas, because that is a conventional
representation. Here is an example:

I paste in a string (without quotes) like:
"4235,4236,4237,4238,4246,4247,4248,4249,4250,4251 ,4252"

Excel turns it into a number like:
42,354,236,423,742,300,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 ,000,000

Interestingly, if I paste in:
"4235, 4236, 4237, 4238, 4246, 4247, 4248, 4249, 4250, 4251, 4252"

I get a text string and not a number. This does not happen in cells where I
preformat the cell as Text, but does when the cell is General format.

Just curious,

Eric