I've encountered what appears to be a bug in both Excel for Mac 14.6.1 and 15.19.1.

When you format a cell to be a number (no decimals), and then paste a credit card number in that cell, and hit return/enter, it deletes the last digit and replaces it with a "0".

So for example, 1234567891234567 shows up as 1234567891234560.



or 123456789123456789 shows up as 123456789123456000.

The same thing happens if you type the number in to the cell.

Obviously, I can circumvent if I set it up as a text field by typing '1234567891234567.

Does anyone know why this occurs?

John

There is always Excel Help!
Try to search Excel specifications, Calculation specifications and limits.

Can you format as ####################?

Setting format as #################### does not work. Still changes the last digit to 0

You don't trouble to read what I wrote?

When I put those words in excel help search box, as well as various subsets of those words, I get back "no results".

So I don't know how to see what you are referring me to

Calculation specifications and limits


Feature

Maximum limit



Number precision

15 digits


Smallest allowed negative number

-2.2251E-308

..............

It is not an error, it's a documented limitation that has been around for many years. The 15-digit resolution limit is part of the Excel specifications, which XOR suggested you read. See: https://support.office.com/en-us/art...7-269d656771c3 - returned by inputting 'Excel specifications, Calculation specifications and limits' into a web search. It also explains why the format suggested by gebobs won't work.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

Thanks!

I guess Microsoft doesn't expect anyone to input a credit card number.

This has nothing to do with what Microsoft 'expects', but everything to do with how a computer stores numbers. One might also argue that credit card 'numbers' aren't numbers - they're a string consisting of digits with space separators. Excel allows you to input them as string.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]

got it. Thanks

Any "number" that is going to be used for mathematical usage is subject to a 15 digit limit. If said number is to be used as an identifier only, then format as text string (no constraints are placed on said number length.)

I wouldn't go so far, since it's only an issue for numeric strings of more than 15 digits and, furthermore, Excel accepts shorter numbers (not strings) as the input for formatting as phone numbers, zip-codes, etc.

__________________
Cheers,
Paul Edstein
[Fmr MS MVP - Word]