Numbers showing up as equal and plus signs

The number is very large. It is probably a serial number or ID number.

How many numbers are there? They have to be formatted as text to be displayed correctly.

Kevin

techchic008 wrote:

9.40011E+21

These is a long number with over 15 numbers, how do I get it to read correctly

I received an excel with a list of numbers 

Since there are more than 15 digits, you need to enter the data as text.

You cannot simply reformat the cell as Number because:  (a) Excel formats only up to 15 significant digits; and (b) the number was changed when it was entered or read incorrectly.  In particular, Excel substituted zeros for digits after the first 15 digits.

So the data must be re-input.

If you enter the data manually, format the cell as Text before typing the number.  Alternatively, type an apostrophe (single quote) in front of the number.  For example, '123456789012345678901.

But you say you "received an excel" file.  If you mean it is a CSV file (".csv" or ".txt"), it is important that you import the file, not open it directly using Excel.

To import the file, start Excel (for example, click on the Excel icon, not the file icon), then click on Data, Get External Data, From Text, enter the file name and click on Import.  That will open a dialog box.

In the last step of the dialog, select the column that contains the "numbers" (really, they are some kind of ID), and select Text under Column Data Format.

someone sent me this file they pasted USPS tracking numbers

there are a lot of them, it is too tedious for one to enter as text??? 

So should import file? How do I do that? It was sent to me via email

when I did the above it opens the file with  no columns all the info is per line mushed together

techchic008 wrote:

someone sent me this file they pasted USPS tracking numbers

there are a lot of them, it is too tedious for one to enter as text??? 

So should import file? How do I do that?

Please answer:  what is the file name extension?  For example, ".xls", ".xlsx", ".xlsm", ".txt", ".cvs" or something else (what?)?

techchic008 wrote:

when I did the above it opens the file with  no columns all the info is per line mushed together

What is "the above":  my instructions for Get External Data / From Text?

If so, it sounds like the file contains ascii text (which is a good thing), but the data is separated by an invisible character.  This might happen when the text file is created on another type of system (e.g. Linux).

But if that were the case, I don't understand how you were able to open the file in Excel.

The quickest and surest way for us to help you is for you to upload the original file -- the one that someone sent to you -- to a file-sharing website [1], then post the public/share URL in a response here.

Alternatively, send the file directly to me:  joeu2004 "at" hotmail.com.

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[1] Some free file-sharing websites.

Dropbox: http://dropbox.com
Box.Net: http://www.box.net/files
MediaFire: http://www.mediafire.com
Windows OneDrive: http://onedrive.live.com

[EDIT] Removed some sites that I have no personal knowledge of.  James Cone reports a problem with at least one of them.

James Cone wrote:

Re: file-sharing websites
Avast said "http://www.filesavr.com" was redirected to a malicious site... http://thefitmom.org/tv.php?...

Thanks.  I'll take your word for it and remove it from my list.  I created that list years ago.  Some of the entries were from other people, I think.  I have no experience with filesavr, filefactory and rapidshare.

Errata....  techchic008 wrote:

csv file

techchic008 wrote:

Will not do that its is personal data- anyone can see the example above but it seems like it is not correctable by answers so far I got

Please don't give up yet!

If the original data is in a CSV file, it should be corrrectable.

But the separator for the column data might not be a comma, despite the file type.  The actual separator depends on the local configuration of the file originator's computer.

And the separator for the row data might not be what Excel on your computer expects, typically:  LF on Linux and Mac OS-X; CR on Mac OS-9 and earlier; and CRLF for Windows.  ("LF" = linefeed; "CR" = carriage return.)

If you open the file in Notepad, do you still see "no columns all the info is per line mushed together"?

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We can continue to play "20 questions" and eventually help you solve the problem.

Alternatively, download "redact data.xls" (click here) [1] to remove all personal data from the file.

(Ignore any box.net preview error, and just download the file.)

To use:

1. Open the Excel file.

2. Right-click on the worksheet tab on the bottom, click on View Code, and double-click on Module1 on the left.

3. Modify the strings assigned to oldFile and newFile.  Be sure the newFile does not exist already.  Then press F5 to execute the macro.

4. When done, see the data in columns A:C in Sheet1.  It is a frequency table of unquoted non-alphanumeric and non-space characters.

The newFile will be the same as oldFile, but with all alphabetic characters (except "E") changed to "a" and with all numeric characters changed to "1".  "E" is not changed because it might part of a number in Scientific format.

It should be safe for you to upload newFile so we can see the structure of the data.

But if you are still skittish, at the very least, please post the frequency data  in columns A:C in a response.   The frequencies might help us infer the structure of the file.

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[1] https://app.box.com/s/301yk0b03hcjg295m8ncorft0v6o3o0z

I wrote:

Alternatively, download "redact data.xls" (click here) [1] to remove all personal data from the file.

[....]

[1] https://app.box.com/s/301yk0b03hcjg295m8ncorft0v6o3o0z

I corrected "redact data.xls" at about 11:30 PM PST on 12 Nov 2015.  If you downloaded the file before then, you might want to download it again.  Sorry for the inconvenience.

The previous version redacted data correctly.  But it did not count unquoted non-alphanumeric and non-space characters as I had intended.