Length of a number in an excel cell

[Shilgirl]

I can't seem to type in some tracking numbers correctly.  The number is correct for only so many characters and then it all changes to 0's so the number is never correct.  It seems to be cutting off after so many characters and then placing 0's.  I am using the cell for long tracking numbers that are all numbers.  How do I get a long number to show correctly in a cell?

[#2]

@Shilgirl 

Change the format of the cell to "Text". Then type the number.

As a variant type an apostrophe before the number.

[#3]

When the cell is changed to "text" I get a weird number. I get 9.40011E+21
Here is the number I typed to text field... 9400111298370453148099. When the field is a number I get 9400111298370450000000.

[#4]

@Shilgirl 

Then you made a mistake.

[#5]

Your attachment was helpful. Thank you. It looks like the cell needs to be a text field BEFORE I put any data in it. Don't understand this because I have always been able to change a cell once I have put data in it with no issues. Also, if I try to copy a track number (no link) when I paste it I have to do a special paste and check the text box. Seems like a lot a work and should be easier but I did get that to work.

[#6]

What you call a 'number' is not numeric data at all (no one is going to ask you to divide it by 2 or extract a square root); it is merely a string of digits and should be treated as text. There may well be information encrypted into the strings but the operations that make sense would be of the form
= MID(trackingNumber, startLocation, stringLength)

[#7]

@Peter Bartholomew 

That makes sense to me Peter.  Frustrating but your comment is helpful.  Thank you.