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MS Excel 2003: Display a large number without scientific format

Question: In Microsoft Excel 2003/XP/2000/97, I'm trying to enter the number 123456789123456000 but it is converts the number into scientific format and displays 1.23457E+17.

How can I get the original value to display properly without scientific format?

Answer: You can change the appearance of numbers in Excel by applying formatting. To remove scientific formatting from a number in Excel, select the cells that you wish to remove the scientific formatting.

Right-click and then select "Format Cells" from the popup menu.

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When the Format Cells window appears, select the Number tab and highlight Number under the Category. In this example, we've also set the number of Decimal places to 0 since our original number did not display any decimal places.

When you are done setting up your number formatting, you can see in the Sample box what the number will look like. When you are happy with how it will look, click on the OK button.

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Now when we return to your spreadsheet, you should see the number without any scientific formatting.

Microsoft Excel