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>But excel just incorrectly determines what you meant How would you, if you were programming excel, determine whether the 5-digit number entered with a leading
by ziddoap 2y ago
>But excel just incorrectly determines what you meant
How would you, if you were programming excel, determine whether the 5-digit number entered with a leading 0 is meant to be a zip code or not?
- sosborn 2y agoWould keeping the leading zero cause any problems with future calculations?
- recursive 2y agoI would not make any default determination until and unless there was a proactive user action. If there is any value that doesn't round trip through string serialization, don't allow it to be coerced without the user deciding to allow it, explicitly.
- dreghgh 2y agoYou know that many users of Excel enter numbers into the cells and then do arithmetic calculations with them right?
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- recursive 2y agoNo, but I think it's a lot. I'd bet that the vast majority of those round-trip through string serialization, requiring no further user action based on my recommendation.
- dreghgh 2y agoDisagree, the most common way for an experienced user to type a date into Excel is as a partial date if it is this year, eg 4-Apr, which is instantly converted to 04/04/2025 or whatever. The vast majority of dates I personally type into Excel would be in this form.