E+14 error

[moyemrick]

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!

 

[Bob I]

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

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

 

[Dave Peterson]

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.