Typing a credit card number in a cell

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jimbo
  • Start date Start date
J

Jimbo

Every time I try to put in the last number of my 16 digit credit card number
Excel makes it a zero. I have tried formatting in number and text.
 
Yes, XL, like most spreadsheets, has a 15-decimal digit precision.

But since you're almost certainly not doing math on the credit card
number, either preformat the cell as Text (so XL won't interpret the
entry as a number), or prefix the entry with an apostrophe:

'0123456789012345
 
Excel handles only 15 digits until it loses values due to rounding. If
you have a longer number, you can either format the cell as Text
(Format menu, Cells item, Number tab, choose Text) before entering the
data or precede the value with an apostrophe. The apostrophe will not
be displayed in the cell, but will be visible in the formula bar. Both
of these methods assume that you will not due calculations on the
number (as is the case with data such as credit card numbers) although
sorting and filtering will still work.

Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft Most Valuable Professional
Excel Product Group, 1998 - 2009
Pearson Software Consulting, LLC
www.cpearson.com
(email on web site)
 
Chip wrote on Sat, 17 Jan 2009 09:05:45 -0600:
Cordially,
Chip Pearson
Microsoft Most Valuable Professional
Excel Product Group, 1998 - 2009
Pearson Software Consulting, LLC
www.cpearson.com
(email on web site)
Click to expand...
On Sat, 17 Jan 2009 06:23:01 -0800, Jimbo
Click to expand...

A minor warning based on my own sad experience. Be consistent with the
card number format if you are going to sort. You will get different
results from using a 16-digit number and groups of 4 separated by blanks
or "-" signs.
--

James Silverton
Potomac, Maryland

Email, with obvious alterations: not.jim.silverton.at.verizon.not
 
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