The sign is contained in the low order bits of the last character.
x'D0' - } translates to -0
x'D1' - J translates to -1
x'D2' - K translates to -2
x'D3' - L translates to -3
etc.

Sounds like Excel does not recognize this format and I'll need a script to
interpret the results.

Thanks,
Tom

"Ron Rosenfeld" wrote:

> On Tue, 15 Nov 2005 06:06:01 -0800, "c62ip64"
> <c62ip64@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote:
>
> >Thanks, I'm getting an 'invalid name error' when using the formula but the
> >second option formats the value with the decimal point placement.
>
> You would get a #NAME error if the cell reference that you substituted for
> cell_ref in the formula was not valid in your worksheet.
>
> >
> >I have one additional question about formatting negative values. How do I
> >format a negative value from the test file, '0005400}', as '-000540.00'.
>
> How do you know that the value is negative?
>
>
> --ron
>