Custom Data Validation

[Woodsie]

Hello all,
I am trying (and failing) to implement a custom data validation to prevent issues during data entry.

I need to permit the following example formats:

4.1
4.2.1
4.3.1.1

I can get the '4.1' level working easily enough (as it's seen as a number with decimal), however once I start getting into the sub-section numbering I am getting data entry errors. This also needs to work for different numbers at the start (e.g. 4, 5, 6 etc).
I tried this but got the error described above:

=COUNTIF(A1,"4.*")+COUNTIF(A1,"5.*")+COUNTIF(A1,"6.*")

I can also get it to work by setting the cells as 'Text' however I then of course get the green error flag for number being stored as text.

I appreciate any help you can offer, many thanks.

 

[Special-K99]

Why are you using COUNTIF on a single cell?

OR(LEFT(A1,2)="4.",LEFT(A1,2)="5.",LEFT(A1,2)="6.")

 

[Woodsie]

Why are you using COUNTIF on a single cell?

OR(LEFT(A1,2)="4.",LEFT(A1,2)="5.",LEFT(A1,2)="6.")

I saw the COUNTIF method on an ablebits guide, it does seem to work for the '4.1' level to be fair
I can't get your method to work, I get validation errors at all levels. I feel like I'm closer though - I can at least see the logic in your formula.
Did this work your end?

Thanks for the help.

 

[Special-K99]

Yep works fine, remember to have A1 selected for your validation

 

[Woodsie]

Yep works fine, remember to have A1 selected for your validation

Sorted, I forgot to add the '=' sign before the formula, doh!
Thanks a lot.