When postcodes and phone numbers lose their 0
012-3456 became 123456, 090... became 90...: Excel read them as numbers. Put the zeros back in one go.
Steps
- Drop the CSV or Excel file; postcode and phone columns are found by name.
- Postcodes are padded to seven digits, phone numbers get their 0 back, with hyphens if you like.
- To open it in Excel, save as xlsx so the zeros stay, or turn on "keep zeros in Excel" for a CSV.
- Check the count of fixed cells and save.
Questions
- Why do the zeros vanish?
- Excel reads 0123 as the number 123. Saved as text, they stay.
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