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nabilhat | 10 months ago

This is supported in Excel. Select options > Data > Automatic Data Conversions > untick the boxes.

discuss

order

criddell|10 months ago

It's not working for me. I have those all unticked but if I create a new file and go to cell A1 and type 1/2, it puts 2-Jan in the cell rather than the text I want.

If I then put 60/100 in cell A2, it doesn't do any conversion. Then put the formula "=Search("/", A1)" in cell B1 and copy that to cell B2, B1 evaluates to #VALUE! and B2 evaluates to 3.

dreghgh|10 months ago

If you want the text "1/2" you should type '1/2

If you want the value one-half you should type =1/2

Not sure why this is controversial, Excel obviously has a syntax that's not focused on reproducing literal text.

matsemann|10 months ago

How does it then work if I send the file to others. Is it saved in the file or will it just crash there?

mulmen|10 months ago

Not sure about an Excel workbook file like xlsx but for something like a CSV there is no way to attach that preference to the file so Excel will continue to mangle data as it always has unless everyone who touches it updates their settings.

acchow|10 months ago

IIRC, conversion to date happens after editing the cell value.

deepsun|10 months ago

The others may have their own preferences to edit documents.

It's like you edited one code file in a project, and you want everyone to switch to night IDE theme when they open that particular file.