leading zeros are not showing in the formula bar but do show in ce

[Guest]

I am working on an excel spreadsheet where I was provided a list of Social
Security Numbers. The SSN's that lead with zeros show up in the cell with
the proper nine digit specification (no dashes or anything), because I
formatted it to text. However, in the formula bar (where it counts), it does
not show the leading zeros.

How can I get the formula bar to show all nine digits including the leading
zeros?

Thanks!

 

[Guest]

If they aren't showing up in the formula bar they aren't there. You probably
have a custom format of "000000000" or something similar. To append the
zero's you can use this function:

=CONCATENATE(REPT("0",9-LEN(A1)),A1)

 

[Guest]

I've dealt with that before, format the cells as text, that will prevent any
leading zeroes from disappearing. You will now have a green triangle in the
upper left hand corner. That just means you have numbers in a cell formatted
for text. Your not adding or manipulating the numbers so don't worry about
it.