Cell Format

[bagia]

Hello,

I have a column where I would like to format as ##-##-##-
##-##-##. I went to Format > Cells and format it in
Custom category. It works fine when I enter values, but
when the data starts with a text, it won't work. Any
suggestions.

When I entered 123456789123, it converts to 12-34-56-78-
91-23. When I entered AU1234567890, it doesn't do
anything. I want it to covert to AU-12-34-56-78-90.

Any ideas would be helpful.

 

[Peo Sjoblom]

You can only format numbers that way, you could custom format as

"AU"-##-##-##-##-##

and just enter the numbers 1234567890

 

[bagia]

The entry doesn't always start with AU. It could be any
two combination of text. Is there anyway that I can
format so that it'll place a "-" after each 2
characters...either values or text?

Any other way I can make this work?

 

[Dave Peterson]

Maybe using a helper cell:

=if(a1="","",mid(a1,1,2)&"-"&mid(a1,3,2)&"-"&mid(a1,5,2))

etc, etc, etc.