Microsoft Office

Part IV
Using Advanced Excel Features
Displaying text with numbers
The ability to display text with a value is one of the most useful benefits of using a custom number format.
To add text, just create the number format string as usual (or use a built-in number format as a starting
point) and put the text within quotation marks. The following number format string, for example, displays
a value with the text (US Dollars) added to the end:
#,##0.00 “(US Dollars)”
Here’s another example that displays text before the number:
“Average: “0.00
If you use the preceding number format, you’ll find that the negative sign appears before the text for negative
values. To display number signs properly, use this variation:
“Average: “0.00;”Average: “-0.00
The following format string displays a value with the words Dollars and Cents. For example, the number
123.45 displays as 123 Dollars and .45 Cents.
0 “Dollars and” .00 “Cents”
Suppressing certain types of entries
You can use number formatting to hide certain types of entries. For example, the following format string
displays text but not values:
;;
This format string displays values but not text or zeros:
0.0;-0.0;;
This format string displays everything except zeros:
0.0;-0.0;;@
Formatting Numbers by Using the TEXT Function
Excel’s TEXT function accepts a number format string as its second argument. For example, the following
formula displays the contents of cell A1 using a custom number format that displays a fraction:
=TEXT(A1,”# ??/50”)
However, not all formatting codes work when used in this manner. For example, colors and repeating characters
are ignored. The following formula does not display the contents of cell A1 in red:
=TEXT(A1,”[Red]General”)
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