Forum Discussion
Please update Excel to handle more than 15 digit numbers!
Thanks for the redirect.
I can see how it would be an issue programming wise. But I think they can solve that using some preferences that allow for backwards compatibility. It is such an important fix for so many reasons: credit card numbers, primary keys, scientific calculations, etc.
For the credit card numbers and primary keys you may use texts and prevent converting such on import with settings
(for modern Excel)
For the scientific calculations it depends, affected if only input data taken from the cell shall have more than 15 digits.
Those settings don't solve the problem. They provide a modicum of workarounds in limited case scenarios. And if anything, your points just reinforce the problems with Excel's programming.
I want Microsoft to fix this. It's long overdue and totally fixable. Forcing folks to jump through hoops and come up with workarounds (if there are any, because often there isn't), especially when many users aren't tech savvy, does not actually solve the problem. It just wastes people's time and energy.You still have to set a new limit.
And then there always will be users who complain that 24 digits, 85 digits or 415 digits are still not enough.
Not sure why a new limit needs to be set, not with modern technology and hardware.
And if a new limit is required, they should set it to whatever is reasonable by current tech/standards. If necessary, they can have it be a user setting (replace digits with zeros after "x" digits) if folks are having performance issues.
Just because a new limit may need to be set doesn't mean they should leave it as is, because it's broken as is. They could at the very least extend it to solve a majority of use cases out there. At least 64 ought to solve the vast majority of issues out there. Surely that must be doable.
