On Sun, 01 Jun 2014 01:11:36 +0100 Brian Barker <b.m.bar...@btinternet.com> wrote:
> At 17:34 31/05/2014 -0600, Oogie McGuire wrote: > >I'm tearing my hair out here. > > Don't! > > >I have a spreadsheet and the data was originally entered as 4 > >digits. I need to pass it to a database system that requires 6 > >digits. I've tried formatting with 2 leading zeros but I still > >cannot get the number to properly show up as 00<number>. Any ideas? > > Yes. If the values you have are numbers, then formatting them (as > something like "000000") should display them as you need. Whether you > get six digits into your database depends on exactly how you then > transfer the values. > > But you say this doesn't work. The most likely explanation is that > the values stored in the cells are not numbers but text strings - > albeit made up of four numeric characters. Changing the formatting of > such cells after the event will not change text values into numbers. > (You generally wouldn't want it to.) > > How to proceed? Take your pick: > > o In a new column, enter =VALUE(Xn) and fill it down the column. You > will now have numbers and can format them as you wish. You could even > copy them back over the original values, using Paste Special... and > pasting Numbers but not Formulas. > > o In a new column, enter ="00"&Xn and fill it down the column. You > will now have six-character text values. Again, you could copy these > back over the original values, using Paste Special... and pasting > Text but not Formulas. > > I trust this helps. > > Brian Barker > > Just change the properties to 'Text'. It'll preserve the format and you can still do math functions using the cell. -- To unsubscribe e-mail to: users+unsubscr...@global.libreoffice.org Problems? http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/ Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/users/ All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted
