I just want to make sure I understand you. Do I put this formula in another
column or in the same column and then type the numbers.

"Sheela" wrote:

Type ' before typing the numbers in the cell.

You can use a formula like
=CONCATENATE("'",A1)
to avoid typing all the numbers manually.

Test this out with a couple of rows first.

"klafert" wrote:

I have a spreadsheet and in one column I have numbers like below:


5/14/08 5280-3-01 Test
5/14/08 5280-3-01 Test
5/14/08 5280-3-01 Test
5/14/08 1030-0-01 Test
5/14/08 2101-0-01 Test
5/14/08 1030-0-01 Test
5/14/08 2101-0-01 Test

I have formated the 2ND column in Text, Number, every type of format. I
even tried re-typing the number manually, and copy and pasted everything in
a new spreadsheet and re-typed the number again. But when I save this
spreadsheet to .csv the 5280-3-01 turns into a date. I even manually
formatted and re-typed the number in the .csv file. I don't have to open the
file after I save it in a .csv because I am importing it into another
program. However, when I tried to import the file it bombs on this column,
yet the rest of the numbers in the same format will go import. I have already
done this before with the same number. However all the other numbers in
column 2 starting with the 4th line comes out fine. I formatted the whole
column the same.


The first 3 lines were the number is 5280-3-01 - I