I am trying to input a number into an excel spreadsheet that starts with 0, i.e. 01234. Every time I put it into a cell, it automatically deletes the first 0, unless I put in an apostrophe. Is there any way to display that 0 with some sort of custom format without using an apostrophe?
format cells -> Text
format cells (ctrl 1) -> “number” tab -> “text”
divide it by zero
Thanks
You do realize that the apostrophe forces the stuff that follows it to be text. If you need to convert it back into a number for some other purpose, you can use VALUE(). If you don’t want to be bothered to type in the apostrophe, the format as text seems to be a good suggestion. I hadn’t thought of that.
You can also go to Format Cells, select Custom, then where it says “Type:” type in zero’s for however many total digits you want (e.g., for 123 --> 0000123, type 0000000). This is probably better, assuming you want the same total number of digits for all of your cells, since formatting as text will screw up calculations from those cells.