length formula

[hennahairgel]

I have some formula in cells which I from an output file, and I am using Excel to work with results.
The problem is the output file generates results in the format of one letter and then five letters or numbers ie C12345 or F4567U. My problem comes when the first number is zero ie E09876, excel truncates it to E9876. I the #NAME? error by getting is to put everything as ="G45678", however I'm still stuck with the lost '0'.
Is there a way of looking at the length of a formula in a cell, and if it is too short inserting a zero in a relevant position?
TIA
Henry

[Chris Davison]

On 2002-02-28 08:49, hennahairgel wrote:
I have some formula in cells which I from an output file, and I am using Excel to work with results.
The problem is the output file generates results in the format of one letter and then five letters or numbers ie C12345 or F4567U. My problem comes when the first number is zero ie E09876, excel truncates it to E9876. I the #NAME? error by getting is to put everything as ="G45678", however I'm still stuck with the lost '0'.
Is there a way of looking at the length of a formula in a cell, and if it is too short inserting a zero in a relevant position?
TIA
Henry

Evening Henry,

I'm a bit confused with your description of the problem.

the =g45678 is an instruction to tell Excel to read the cell in row 45678 intersected by column G

also, Excel actually truncates E09876 to E9876 ? I may be a million miles away but it sounds like it's trying to interpret this as a scientific format (ie 1.23E89, itself a big number) where nE9876 would be a number bigger than Imelda Marcos's total shoe inventory (!)

[gplhl]

On 2002-02-28 08:49, hennahairgel wrote:
I have some formula in cells which I from an output file, and I am using Excel to work with results.
The problem is the output file generates results in the format of one letter and then five letters or numbers ie C12345 or F4567U. My problem comes when the first number is zero ie E09876, excel truncates it to E9876. I the #NAME? error by getting is to put everything as ="G45678", however I'm still stuck with the lost '0'.
Is there a way of looking at the length of a formula in a cell, and if it is too short inserting a zero in a relevant position?
TIA
Henry

=IF(LEN(A1)=6,CONCATENATE(MID(A1,1,1),"0",MID(A1,2,6)),A1)

If the data is in cell A1, that is if the length of the string is always 6 without the 0 and 7 with the 0. If it is different the formula will need modifying.




_________________
Regards,

Gary Hewitt-Long

[ This Message was edited by: gplhl on 2002-02-28 11:40 ]