cell prefix

[Johno313]

hi all,
im trying to prefix the contents of a cell with a zero.
e.g. original cell = 12345 --> target cell should read 012345.
im totaly stuck - and a total begginer, so any help would be greatly
appreciated.

thanks!!

 

[Mallycat]

The problem you are having is that there is no such thing as the number
01234. If this is a product code or something similar, then you are
best to format the cell as text. When you tell Excel that numbers are
actually text, it will display as above (but you can't perform
calculations).

Use Format\Cells\Text

Matt

 

[Guest]

Select the cells and then pull-down:

Format > Cells > Number > Custom > and enter "0"General

This should always get you that leading zero

 

[Johno313]

sussed it, i needed to format as custom and input 5 "0's" in to the type
box. this defaults the cell to 5 characters, anything shorter i.e. 4
becomes preceeded with 0.

thanks anyway.

 

[Mallycat]

Not really. It displays as if there is a 0 there, but it isn't actually
there. You wont have any problems if you are just trying to print data,
read the page etc. But if you try to reference the cell and are looking
for 01234 then you will have problems.

Matt