"excel cannot find the data you are looking for" but i can see it!

[d41sy]

ti have completed a worksheet that includes two columns of numbers in the
format 0001 - 1500 and 00000 - 99999. when i try to search for a given
number, even though it is clearly on the worksheet in fron of my eyes, excel
cannot find the number and shows a box "excel cannot find the data you are
looking for".

any help with this confusing problem would be very greatly appreciated,
many thanks,
d41sy

 

[Kevin B]

Your format mask is set to pad digits that are less than 5 numbers in length
with leading zeroes. However if you're looking for a number that looks like
001111 and you tell Excel to find the number 00111, it will come up empty.

When you format a number it only changes the way the number appears
on-screen and in print, but it does not modify the value itself. So if you
need to find 00111 you need to look for 111 as that is the value in the cell.

Hope this helps...