Excel number formats

[Alfieb1996]

Hi all,

When I divide a value (e.g 5.139) /2 it gives me the correct answer but in the format of 2570 instead of 2.5. Any fixes?

[#2]

@Alfieb1996

Do you perhaps use comma as decimal separator? If so, Excel interprets the . in 5.139 as the thousands separator.

[#3]

@Hans Vogelaar 

Thanks for your reply Hans. The file did use the comma as the separator originally but i rectified this by changing the ',' to '.' in the options, advanced section. I thought that perhaps this would solve my issue but it hasn't so far.

[#4]

@Alfieb1996 

What happens if you recalculate the formula, for example by pressing F2 in its cell, then pressing Enter?

[#5]

The same result unfortunately. If I enter the value in the cell instead of the cell reference the number is correct though. Is there anyway I can replicate this in a formula?

Thanks again for your time.

[#6]

@Alfieb1996 

Could you attach a sample workbook (without sensitive data), or if that is not possible, make it available through OneDrive, Google Drive, Dropbox or similar? Thanks in advance.

[#7]

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/176bM9BFE7eixLatGgg85wjxF7IKTABLx/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=11195...

Hi Hans,

Please see attached. Should be open for editing. under 'new' i need the values to have decimals after the first digit, not fourth.

Best,

Alfie

[#8]

@Alfieb1996 

I suspect it's still a matter of confusion about the decimal separator.

On my computer, period/dot/point is the decimal separator, and comma is the thousands separator.

When I open your workbook, I see this:

As you can see, columns B and C contain a comma = thousands separator. So for example, the value in B2 is five thousand one hundred and thirty-nine.

But columns D to G contain points, so the value of D2 is ten-and-a-half, and not ten thousand five hundred.

[#9]

Yes, you are correct. So I changed the thousands separator to '.' which looks okay but doesn't fundamentally change the numbers to single digits. Is there any way to fix this or will I have to re-enter the data as non thousand values?

Thanks Hans!

[#10 · Accepted solution]

@Alfieb1996 

You can do the following:

Enter 1000 in an empty cell.

Copy this cell (Ctrl+C).

If you want to multiply some cells with 1000, select those cells.

Right-click in the selection and select Paste Special... from the context menu.

Under Operation, select Multiply, then click OK.

Or if you want to divide some cells by 1000, select those cells.

Right-click in the selection and select Paste Special... from the context menu.

Under Operation, select Divide, then click OK.

You can then clear the cell in which you entered 1000.

[#11]

Thanks Hans,

That's fixed the issue, thanks for your time :)