Books at Amazon.com Number Formats in Microsoft Excel The original version of this article appeared in. Number Formats are little codes that help you control the appearance of numbers in Excel.
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In this course, learn how to create and use macros to automate tasks in Excel 2016 for Mac. Discover when it's appropriate to use macros, how to create macros by recording keystroke and command sequences, and how to expand a macro for more than one task. The Excel CHAR function returns a character when given a valid character code. CHAR can be used to specify characters that are hard to enter in a formula. For example, CHAR(10) returns a line break on Windows, and CHAR(13) returns a line break on the Mac.
They are not difficult, and can also be used to help with a few tricks. I'm using Excel charts in many of these examples, but these number formats also apply to values in cells.
You can view or edit a number format by double clicking on a text element, then clicking on the Number tab in the dialog, shown below. There are a number of built in categories, and you will have to experiment with different ones to learn all the options you have. Most likely you will find an appropriate number format within the choices provided, but it is also very easy to add your own.
If your desired number format is similar to one you can find in the dialog, select it, then click on the Custom category. The chosen number format will be displayed in an edit box, where you can adjust it as needed. Number Format Dialog A number format consists of up to 4 items, separated by semicolons. Each of the items is an individual number format. The first by default applies to positive numbers, the second to negative numbers, the third to zeros, and the fourth to text. If you don't apply any special formatting to text, Excel uses the General number format, which basically means anything that will fit. That means Excel will show as many decimal places that the text item has room for, it won't use a thousands separator, and if the number can't fit, perhaps due to a narrow column width, Excel uses a scientific number format.
If only one format is specified, Excel uses it for any contents of the cell. The Y axis tick labels above and the column of numbers to the right use the General number format. 1.23E+0 1250.5 123.45 12.345 1.2345 0.12345 0.012345 0.001235 0.000123 1.23E-05 1.23E-06 You can make long numbers easier to read by inserting a thousands separator (a comma for those working in the US).
The #,##0 number format is used below; the comma in the format tells Excel to use commas, the octothorpe (pound sign) is merely a placeholder for the comma, and tells Excel not to put digits there if none are needed, and there are no decimal digits. This works well for the axis labels below left, but the decimal fractions have all been truncated to their integer values, zero. Also, this format doesn't allow Excel to use the shorter scientific format, so the longest numbers merely show #######, signifying that they don't fit in their cells. There is only one format specified, so negative numbers use the same format with the comma thousands separator.
Without anything different specified, the negative numbers are signified with a minus sign. Make the labels easier to read: Insert a thousands separator with the #,##0 number format.
####### ####### 1,234,500 123,450 12,345 1,234 123 12 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 Excel does not have a number format that provides for a given number of significant digits. The best you can do in this case is retain the General number format, and use a formula to round the value to the appropriate number of digits. The column of numbers to the right use a formula of this form to maintain three significant digits: =ROUND(B1,2-INT(LOG(B1))) The formula, of course, processes the number in cell B1.
If your values require only a few different decimal digit variations, there's a trick below that uses the number format and no intermediate formulas. 123000 10 1230 123 12.3 1.23 0.123 0.0123 0.00123 0.000123 0.0000123 0.00000123 Defining Colors in Number Formats The chart below shows how to make negative numbers appear different, something accountants need to know at a glance.
The number format used for the Y axis labels is $#,##0;Red$#,##0. The first part of this two part format tells Excel to use a dollar sign and a comma thousands separator for positive numbers. The second part tells Excel to make negative numbers red, then use the dollar sign and thousands separator (but no minus sign, since it isn't explicitly stated). Since there is no third number format, Excel uses the first for zero values. Negative numbers stand out with a number format like $#,##0;Red$#,##0.
Let's use the three part number format Blue$#,##0;Red$#,##0;$#,##0, so we can color positive numbers blue, negatives red, and keep zeros in their default black. The colors that are available in number formats are Black, Blue, Cyan, Green, Magenta, Red, White, and Yellow. The Blue$#,##0;Red$#,##0;$#,##0 number format produces tricolored axis labels.
Changing the Default Number Format Conditions By default, the first three items in the number format are applied to positive, negative, and zero values. But you can assign your own simple conditions. For example, in this chart, numbers equal to or greater than 3000 are colored blue, with the Blue=3000$#,##0;Red=3000$#,##0;Red=' with '=' in the Blue=3000$#,##0;Red990;#.###.
This gives the following results: Number As displayed using =00;990;#.### 1230 1230 123 123 12.3 12.3 1.23 1.23 0.123.123 0.0123.012 0 0 Leading and Trailing Zeros and Spaces Already this article has explained the use of '0' in a number format to indicate required. Similarly, '#' is used as a placeholder for permitted digits, while '?' Indicates either a digit, if it's a nonzero leading or trailing digit, or a space to help preserve alignment. Use '0' to preserve leading and trailing zeros 0 0.0 0.00 0.000 00 000 00.00 9 8.5 8.50 8.500 09 009 08.50 12 12.3 12.25 12.250 12 012 12.25 Use '#' to allow but not require digits # #.# #.## #.### ## ### ##.## 9 8.5 8.5 8.5 9 9 8.5 12 12.3 12.25 12.25 12 12 12.25 Use '?' To preserve alignment (using spaces in place of trailing zeros)??????????????????? 9 8.5 8.5 8.5 9 9 8.5 12 12.3 12.25 12.25 12 12 12.25 Use '?'
To preserve alignment (using spaces in place of leading zeros)??????????????????? 9 8.5 8.5 8.5 9 9 8.5 12 12.3 12.25 12.25 12 12 12.25 Labels If you type a number with a label, for example, '15 feet', Excel interprets this entry as text, and cannot use the value in a calculation. However, if you incorporate this label into the number format ( 0' feet'), then the number is stored in the cell as a number, but displayed with the label. You should enclose the label in double quotes, but if the label cannot be confused with one of the formatting characters, Excel will treat it as a label (for example, M cannot be used as is for a label, since 'M' represents Month or Minute in a custom format).
Number Format Value Display 0' feet' 15 15 feet 'After 'd-mmm-yy 1 August, 2006 After 1-Aug-06 h'x'mm'x'ss 2:34:56 AM 2x34x56 Thousands, Millions, etc. If you use a number format like 0, Excel simply writes the number with no decimal point or decimal digits. To truncate the last three digits of a number in the thousands, append a comma to the number format, like this: 0. Two commas drop off two sets of three digits, etc.
To add a character after the number, K for thousands, append it in quotes: 0,'K'.
I'm trying to create an Excel sheet to display MAC addresses in the following format - 00:00:00:00:00:00 However. The characters can be either letters or numbers. I've modified the 'hh:mm:ss' template to accomodate the format I need, but it will not recognize letters for the obvious reason. Is there a wildcard character that I could use in this format or has anyone created a format that would meet my needs?
If I can pull this off, it could mean a promotion. Thanks in advance for any and all help. Code: Private Sub WorksheetChange(ByVal Target As Range) Dim myText As String If Len(Target) 12 Then Exit Sub 'check for correct length If Target.Column 1 Then Exit Sub 'only Column A Application.EnableEvents = False myText = Left(Target.Text, 2) & ':' & Mid(Target.Text, 3, 2) & ':' & Mid(Target.Text, 3, 2) & ':' & Mid(Target.Text, 3, 2) & ':' & Mid(Target.Text, 3, 2) & ':' & Right(Target.Text, 2) Target.Value = myText 'put MAC string back into original cell Application.EnableEvents = True End Sub.
How to use the above code: Press Alt-F11 to open the VBE. Press Control-R to open the Project Explorer. Click 'Microsoft Excel Objects' for the file you're working on.
Double-click the sheet module where you need this to work. Open the Code pane with F7.
Paste the above code in. Press Alt-Q to close the VBE and return to Excel Hope that helps! Assumming your addresses are in column A, starting in row 2 Option Explicit Private Sub WorksheetChange(ByVal Target As Range) If Target.Column 1 Then Exit Sub 'column of interest If Target.Row 1 Then Exit Sub 'no multiple selections With Target 'ex: ae:12:e0:34:bb:00 Application.EnableEvents = False.Value = Left(.Value, 2) & ':' & Mid(.Value, 3, 2) & ':' & Mid(.Value, 5,2) & ':' & Mid(.Value,7,2)& ':' & Right(.Value,2) Application.EnableEvents = True End With End Sub This goes in the WorkSheet module HTH lenze.