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Apr 19, 2017 · Open Excel. On the Home tab, click the Dialog Box Launcher next to Number. You can also press Ctrl+1 to open the Format Cells dialog box. In the Decimal places box, enter the number of decimal places that you want for the number. As you make changes, watch the number in the Sample box.
How to avoid misleading numbers. Applying a number format to a cell doesn't change the value, but only how the value appears in the worksheet. Formatting can play a joke with you, e.g., the sum of values seems incorrect because Excel displays a limited number of decimal places, and their sum is not equal to the real sum.
- Overview
- Create a custom format code
- Text and spacing
- Decimal places, spaces, colors, and conditions
- Currency, percentages, and scientific notation
- Dates and times
- See also
You can use number formats to change the appearance of numbers, including dates and times, without changing the actual number. The number format does not affect the cell value that Excel uses to perform calculations. The actual value is displayed in the formula bar.
Excel provides several built-in number formats. You can use these built-in formats as is, or you can use them as a basis for creating your own custom number formats. When you create custom number formats, you can specify up to four sections of format code. These sections of code define the formats for positive numbers, negative numbers, zero values, and text, in that order. The sections of code must be separated by semicolons (;).
The following example shows the four types of format code sections.
Format for positive numbers
Format for negative numbers
Format for zeros
1.On the Home tab, click Number Format , and then click More Number Formats.
2.In the Format Cells dialog box, in the Category box, click Custom.
3.In the Type list, select the number format that you want to customize.
The number format that you select appears in the Type box at the top of the list.
To display both text and numbers in a cell, enclose the text characters in double quotation marks (" ") or precede a single character with a backslash (\). Include the characters in the appropriate section of the format codes. For example, you could type the format $0.00" Surplus";$–0.00" Shortage" to display a positive amount as "$125.74 Surplus" and a negative amount as "$–125.74 Shortage."
You don't have to use quotation marks to display the characters listed in the following table:
To create a number format that includes text that is typed in a cell, insert an "at" sign (@) in the text section of the number format code section at the point where you want the typed text to be displayed in the cell. If the @ character is not included in the text section of the number format, any text that you type in the cell is not displayed; only numbers are displayed. You can also create a number format that combines specific text characters with the text that is typed in the cell. To do this, enter the specific text characters that you want before the @ character, after the @ character, or both. Then, enclose the text characters that you entered in double quotation marks (" "). For example, to include text before the text that's typed in the cell, enter "gross receipts for "@ in the text section of the number format code.
To create a space that is the width of a character in a number format, insert an underscore (_) followed by the character. For example, if you want positive numbers to line up correctly with negative numbers that are enclosed in parentheses, insert an underscore at the end of the positive number format followed by a right parenthesis character.
You can use number format codes to control the display of digits before and after the decimal place. Use the number sign (#) if you want to display only the significant digits in a number. This sign does not allow the display non-significant zeros. Use the numerical character for zero (0) if you want to display non-significant zeros when a number might have fewer digits than have been specified in the format code. Use a question mark (?) if you want to add spaces for non-significant zeros on either side of the decimal point so that the decimal points align when they are formatted with a fixed-width font, such as Courier New. You can also use the question mark (?) to display fractions that have varying numbers of digits in the numerator and denominator.
If a number has more digits to the left of the decimal point than there are placeholders in the format code, the extra digits are displayed in the cell. However, if a number has more digits to the right of the decimal point than there are placeholders in the format code, the number is rounded off to the same number of decimal places as there are placeholders. If the format code contains only number signs (#) to the left of the decimal point, numbers with a value of less than 1 begin with the decimal point, not with a zero followed by a decimal point.
To display a comma as a thousands separator or to scale a number by a multiple of 1000, include a comma (,) in the code for the number format.
To display leading and trailing zeros prior to or after a whole number, use the codes in the following table.
To specify the color for a section in the format code, type the name of one of the following eight colors in the code and enclose the name in square brackets as shown. The color code must be the first item in the code section.
[Black] [Blue] [Cyan] [Green] [Magenta] [Red] [White] [Yellow]
Use the following keyboard shortcuts to enter the following currency symbols in the Type box.
The regional settings for currency determine the position of the currency symbol (that is, whether the symbol appears before or after the number and whether a space separates the symbol and the number). The regional settings also determine the decimal symbol and the thousands separator. You can control these settings by using the Mac OS X International system preferences.
To display numbers as a percentage of 100 — for example, to display .08 as 8% or 2.8 as 280% — include the percent sign (%) in the number format.
To display numbers in scientific notation, use one of the exponent codes in the number format code — for example, E–, E+, e–, or e+. If a number format code section contains a zero (0) or number sign (#) to the right of an exponent code, Excel displays the number in scientific notation and inserts an "E" or "e". The number of zeros or number signs to the right of a code determines the number of digits in the exponent. The codes "E–" or "e–" place a minus sign (-) by negative exponents. The codes "E+" or "e+" place a minus sign (-) by negative exponents and a plus sign (+) by positive exponents.
To format dates and times, use the following codes.
Round a number to the decimal places you want by using formatting and how to use the ROUND function in a formula to round to the nearest major unit such as thousands, hundreds, tens, or ones. The ROUNDUP and ROUNDDOWN functions alre also explained.
Aug 9, 2024 · Apply number formatting. Just like other types of formatting, such as changing font color, you apply number formats by selecting cells and selecting the desired formatting options. There are two main ways to choose a number format: Go to the Home tab , click the Number Format drop-down menu in the Number group , and select the desired format.
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Aug 11, 2022 · On Windows, select File > Options. Choose "Advanced" on the left. Then check the box for Automatically Insert a Decimal Point and enter or use the arrows to set the number of decimal places. On Mac, select Excel > Preferences from the menu bar. Choose "Edit" in the box that appears.
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iif(floor(Fields!numericFieldName.Value)=Fields!numericFieldName.Value,"0","0.##") as the number format expression. This produced an Excel file with two cell formats, selected by whether or not the value was an integer.
