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I am having a little bit of a problem with Excel. I am typing into a cell a barcode number for my products but every time I leave the cell it automatically formats the cell as below.

Number I want to enter: 5028252188661
Result after entering: 5.02825E+12

Saving the document as a normal .xls or .xlsx file I can overcome this problem by changing the format to a number, removing the decimal places.

My main issue is when I convert the file to a CSV, the column is automatically formatted back and keeps doing this even after I change and save the file.

If anyone is able to help me with this, it would be greatly appreciated.

Dave
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Floyd
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2 Answers2

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The answer is no! This is the behaviour by design I'm afraid to say! Source

There may be some work arounds using templates. See the comments as I've marked it as a duplicate.

I will also point out, that it may not actually do what you think it's doing (or what it's showing). When Excel loads the CSV, it formats it to the scientific notation, however, that's just the formatting, the actual value is untouched. To test it, load the CSV in notepad and see.

Dave
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Select the entire column in your excel sheet that contains the barcode number. Right-click the column-header and choos 'Format cells'. In the dialog that apperars, choose Text. Excel should now never reformat the contents.

You do need to perform this action everytime you open your CSV in Excel.

R-D
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