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Adding a zero before values in an Excel spreadsheet column?

Adding a zero before values in an Excel spreadsheet column?

While trying to fill in social security numbers into Excel 2007, my dad found out that he couldn't make the numbers start with a zero (0).

Asked by: Guest | Views: 398
Total answers/comments: 4
Guest [Entry]

"If the numbers you're inserting all have a common length, you can set a custom format on them:

So if you wanted 123456789 to turn into 0123456789, you'd use the format 0000000000."
Guest [Entry]

"Excel has special formatting for Social Security Numbers.

Select the cells where you want to type the SSN's
Right click and choose ""Format Cells""
On the ""Number"" tab, choose ""Special"" (toward the bottom of the list)
On the right you'll see ""Social Security Number"". Select it and click ""OK""

When you type the SSN's in those cells, they will take leading zeros."
Guest [Entry]

"I found the solution on a forum:

Your numbers are probably stores as
numbers, if you still want them stored
as numbers you could use custom number
formatting.

Select Format -> Cell -> Number ->
Custom

Enter this format: 00000000000

This makes your number display with 11
digits and leading zeros."
Guest [Entry]

"We can't ignore zero as you know how it is important to us. You can add zero before any number by performing the following steps:

Open the MS Excel worksheet.
Write the number in the cell before you want to add zero.
Right click the mouse in the cell, select Format Cells... option. Format Cells window will be displayed.
Select the Numbers tab from the window then click Custom option from the left Category: section.
Select 0 option from the Type section.
Type the no. of zeroes as many as your number contains digit. For example, your number is 12345, so now you need to enter five zeros after the selected 0 in the type section i.e. 000000.
Click OK. The number of zeros entered by you will be converted to digits and the result would be 012345"