preceding zeros

[Simon]

does anyone know how i can stop excel removing preceding
zeros from numbers. i've formatted the column to text, but
no matter what i do the leading zeros get chopped off.
i've been able to add a preceding apostrophe which doesnt
appear in the spreadsheet yet stops this happening, but it
isnt good enough.

many thanks
Simon.

 

[Frank Kabel]

Hi Simon
one way: you can assign a custom format to these cells. E.g. "00000" ->
all numbers will be filled up to five digits with leading zeros
Frank

 

[RCampbell]

Better late than never. To display the number exactly as
you enter it, type an apostrophe (*) in front of the
leading zero. The apostrophe will not appear in your
worksheet nor does it print.