leading zeros in zip code

[Renee_frustrated]

I am trying to use the zip code to perform a vlookup but
as soon as I do text to column in the the zip code column
I lose the leading zeros. I have tried to change the
column to text and then tried to use the custom format
of "0"# with no success. Is there any other option aside
from creating a separate column with zero and
concatenating?

Help

 

[Frank Kabel]

Hi
format the complete column as 'Text'

 

[On Film]

Work with either 5 or 9 digit ZIPCODES but don't mix them. Mixing
stresses Excel.
Mike

 

[David McRitchie]

Stay clear of numbers entirely for your zip codes, format the
column as Text as suggested by Frank. The nine digit
zip code are very high numbers and won't sort properly
when mixed like you said. If they are text you can even
select the first 3 digits required for some mail sorting..

No problem as long as they are all text. If they are text you can
sort them, use them in Mail Merge. But simply changing the
format to text does not make a number become text.

Suggest using a macro to convert the 5 digit numeric
zip codes to text. See FixUSzip5 in
http://www.mvps.org/dmcritchie/excel/join.htm#fixUSzip5