# Inserting 000 in front of numbers in a column in excel



## realgeek (Aug 23, 2010)

Hi all

I want to add 000 (three zeros) before the numbers in a column of my excel worksheet.How can I do it?

thanks


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## valis (Sep 24, 2004)

preface the number with a '.......eg, to put a 000 in front of 123, you will have to enter it as '000123.


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## realgeek (Aug 23, 2010)

thanks valis for the help but if you want to edit a specific cell then this ' will be shown,I want such a way that this 000 would be permanent and the time of editing no other thing is shown
and the most important fact is I want to add 000 at once to all the numbers in the column, not by manually adding them.Is there any method to do such way?
thanks


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## bomb #21 (Jul 1, 2005)

Looks like there are 100s though. 

Download ASAP, then use "8. Text > Insert before current value".

http://www.asap-utilities.com/index.php


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## etaf (Oct 2, 2003)

does this formatting help at all http://pubs.logicalexpressions.com/pub0009/LPMArticle.asp?ID=146
use special format 
then type 
000############
make the number of # the maximum number of numbers you will have after the 3 zeros - should then work for your max number and also work if just 1 entered


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## turbodante (Dec 19, 2008)

In an adjacent column, do 

="000"&A1

and drag this down. Then with the column, copy > paste special > paste values.


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## Keebellah (Mar 27, 2008)

Just use the cell format
If you select the numeric cells you can set a Custom format as 000000000 and all the numreic values in that range will fill up with the leading zero's as you set in this case 8 leading zero's, if you enter 9 the cells will show 00000009 but in the formula bar you will only see a 9
This makes calculations easier than adding a '000000008 which converts it to s string.


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## etaf (Oct 2, 2003)

if you format with 000 then ###### it will then change to match the numbers you entered - as posted above 
ie

1 
will display as
0001
and 
123456789
will display as
000123456789


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