Buzz
Excel is an outstanding spreadsheet program that empowers users to perform a multitude of diverse calculations without encountering any difficulties. However, some users may encounter challenges when entering sequences with leading zeros, such as phone numbers, as Excel automatically removes leading zeros.
Because leading zeros at the beginning of a number sequence do not carry much significance or alter the value of the sequence, Excel naturally removes the leading zero to save computational memory. However, in some cases, if users want to display a leading zero, there are three different simple methods to achieve this in Excel.
Various Methods for Writing Zero at the Beginning of Number Sequences in Excel
Method 1. Set Text Format for Cells or Columns Containing Data
Formatting data in this Excel spreadsheet will allow you to write zero at the beginning of number sequences as regular characters. Excel will recognize this as pure text, not data for computation, ensuring that zero is not lost.
Step 1:
Step 2: Right-click and choose Format Cells... to format the selected data range.
Step 3: In the Format Cells window, simply select the Text option on the left panel and then choose OK to save the settings.
Step 4: Once the formatting is done, you can write zero at the beginning of number sequences in Excel without losing the leading zero.
Method 2. Use Single Quotes
This is a quick formatting method for data cells into pure text. If you have only a few data cells you want to display zero at the beginning of number sequences, you can perform this operation.
Step 1: During data entry, simply add a single quote ( ' ) before the digit 0.
Method 3. Set up Automatic Zero Filling
Excel features an interesting option that allows users to display zero in the spreadsheet without manually entering additional zeros. You can achieve this as follows.
Step 1: Similar to method 1, select the necessary data ranges to automatically write zero at the beginning of number sequences in Excel, then choose Format Cells.
Step 2: In the left column, choose Custom to customize settings. In the Type box, enter the number of zeros satisfying the condition: number of zeros to enter = number of zeros to display at the beginning + number of characters without zeros. For example, if you want to add 2 zeros before the sequence 123456789 (with 9 characters), you need to enter 2 + 9 = 11 in the Type box.
After pressing OK, you will see the values applied to the selected columns. You can repeat the same steps to automatically display zero at the beginning of number sequences for other data cells.
Here, Mytour has guided you on how to write zero at the beginning of number sequences in Excel in a simple and quick way. Each method has its own advantages and can be applied to different cases. Additionally, you can explore how to write degrees Celsius in Excel, Word, or PowerPoint.
