Spot on ! as soon as there is anything else than numbers in a string, XL treats it as text. ( without operator intervention text is always left aligned in the cell, numbers are right-aligned)

To keep leading zeros you can format the cell(s) as text (before entering data) or precede the string with an apostrophe (')

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Using O365 v2503 - Did you know you can thank someone who helped you? Click on the tiny scale in the right upper hand corner of your helper's post