Excel: Leading Space Will Enter Numeric String as Text



When I enter certain text strings into Microsoft Excel, such as 2/5/80, the
cell format is automatically changed to a date format. How do I avoid this
without encapsulating the text in quotation marks?

In other words, how do I get Excel to treat certain text as text and not
numerals?

To enter a numeric string in Excel as text, type a space before the entry.

Typing " 1/1/90" (without the quotes) into a cell formatted for "d/mmm/yy"
displays 1/1/90 instead of 1-Jan-90.


Published Date: Feb 18, 2012