scientific notation

<aaron.kempf@gmail.com> wrote...
>i dont believe that works correctly.

You can believe the world is flat, the universe is centered on the Earth,
you're not obtuse, and other demonstrably false propositions and it won't
make them true.

FORMAT CELLS CONTAINING NUMBERS TO ENSURE THEY DISPLAY THE WAY YOU WANT.
*YOUR* failure to do so is *YOUR* problem alone, and there's squat all
Microsoft needs to fix (other than perhaps offering to pay for you to have a
lobotomy and/or one-way transit to a deserted island in the Indian Ocean).

>i want microsoft to fix it.

What's to fix? This is *DOCUMENTED* functionality, *AND* it's familiar to
*ANYONE* who's used *ANY* spreadsheet under MS/PC-DOS or Windows. Also
familiar to anyone who's programmed in any scripting language including VBA
(e.g., enter the following statements in the VBE Immediate window

? (1234# * 5678#) ^ 9#

? (12# * 34#) ^ 5#

). Anyone who knows C's printf format strings knows the difference between
%e (scientific), %f ('normal') and %g ('general') floating point number
formats. It's also part of FORTRAN 95,

http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/UserInfo/Re...HTM#HDRH000062

That you don't understand this concept is obvious, but just because you're
unwilling or unable to grasp this doesn't mean there's anything for
Microsoft to fix.

And to repeat, if numeric data is being pulled into some DBMS in scientific
format, doesn't the DBMS provide facilities to format those numbers some
other way? Or are you saying the *DBMS* is importing numeric data in
scientific format as text? Either way, it ain't Excel causing the problem.

Whow

GO YOU, Harlan......

See what Aaron has got to say to THAT.
( :> ))
--
Greetings from New Zealand
Bill K

"Harlan Grove" <hrlngrv@aol.com> wrote in message
news:uqqF8WYbFHA.348@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
> <aaron.kempf@gmail.com> wrote...
>>i dont believe that works correctly.
>
> You can believe the world is flat, the universe is centered on the Earth,
> you're not obtuse, and other demonstrably false propositions and it won't
> make them true.
>
> FORMAT CELLS CONTAINING NUMBERS TO ENSURE THEY DISPLAY THE WAY YOU WANT.
> *YOUR* failure to do so is *YOUR* problem alone, and there's squat all
> Microsoft needs to fix (other than perhaps offering to pay for you to have
> a
> lobotomy and/or one-way transit to a deserted island in the Indian Ocean).
>
>>i want microsoft to fix it.
>
> What's to fix? This is *DOCUMENTED* functionality, *AND* it's familiar to
> *ANYONE* who's used *ANY* spreadsheet under MS/PC-DOS or Windows. Also
> familiar to anyone who's programmed in any scripting language including
> VBA
> (e.g., enter the following statements in the VBE Immediate window
>
> ? (1234# * 5678#) ^ 9#
>
> ? (12# * 34#) ^ 5#
>
> ). Anyone who knows C's printf format strings knows the difference between
> %e (scientific), %f ('normal') and %g ('general') floating point number
> formats. It's also part of FORTRAN 95,
>
> http://www.ncsa.uiuc.edu/UserInfo/Re...HTM#HDRH000062
>
> That you don't understand this concept is obvious, but just because you're
> unwilling or unable to grasp this doesn't mean there's anything for
> Microsoft to fix.
>
> And to repeat, if numeric data is being pulled into some DBMS in
> scientific
> format, doesn't the DBMS provide facilities to format those numbers some
> other way? Or are you saying the *DBMS* is importing numeric data in
> scientific format as text? Either way, it ain't Excel causing the problem.
>
>

Why chance reigniting a thread like this?

For the record, I'm having problems in this area also. I found a workaround, but it required modifying the data before I import it, which is annoying.

I imported a text file containing a column of IDs that consist of numbers with an alpha suffix. I needed to strip off the alpha and keep the number as-is, with the leading zeroes.

I imported the column as "Text" format and everything was fine, but then I did a "replace all" to remove the alpha portion and Excel converted everything to scientific notation - this in spite of the fact that the column format is text. Changing the format to "General" does not fix it. Changing it to "Number" takes it out of scientific notation but loses my leading zeroes.

I don't think Excel should change the format of a cell once I've specified it - if I want to change it I will. Is it trying to anticipate my needs? Is there a way to tell it not to?