How to display numbers as typed

[jimijenga]

I have a large spreadsheet displaying numerical values with differing numbers of decimal places. Can I set it up so that the number displayed is the value as I typed it in?

(there is no pattern to the table, i.e., all values in a row or column do not all have the same number of decimal places, therefore I can't just select a row or column and format it to show the value to two decimal places, for example)

 

[Taul]

have you tried to format as "General"

 

[jimijenga]

Formatting as General means that if I type in "2.0" it will display "2".

 

[Auracle]

Do you need to do any type of calculations or formulas involving the numbers?

If you format the cells as Text it should preserve the decimal places, and any leading zeroes that may be present. However, sometimes I think that format can goof up calculations and vlookups and things (not always, but sometimes for some reason it doesn't seem to like to work).

That's the only thing I can really think of off the top of my head...

 

[jimijenga]

Thanks, the Text format works for displaying as-typed. This comes in handy as significant digits are indeed significant for this data. On occasion I will have to use the data in calculations; however I just tried a quick formula using the number in the Text-formatted cell and it seemed to work.

 

[Taul]

try : Format - Custom #.0?????

you can play around with the number of # and ? you wish to use.
Calculations should still work ok and decimal alignment should be retained