Want2BExcel
Board Regular
- Joined
- Nov 24, 2021
- Messages
- 112
- Office Version
- 2016
- Platform
- Windows
I have this problem with some data. Some suggested it could be a PowerQuery problem.
I have a table containing serial numbers and a lot of other data. The table is created through a power query that pulls the data out of an access db.
In the Access DB the data is entered as "short text", because serial numbers often includes letters.
In the PowerQuery the data is recognized as text "ABC"
even if some cells contain only numbers, but when loading it into a table, the formatting is "Standard" which causes a problem. I tried changing the whole column to be formatted as "Text" afterwards, but it doesn't help, since this should be done prior to entering data. I tried formatting the columns to text before loading the table, but when loaded it is again "Standard". Is there a way to make the loaded table formatted as "Text" and not "Standard"?
The table has more than 5000+ rows but for 8 of these rows the data is a very long serial number, only containing numbers. For some reason Excel treats all cells that contain only numbers as numbers and not text and for these 8 cells it creates a problem because of the length. Excel is putting in a comma (9,88........) and because Excel can only store up to 15 significant digits. It converts any others after that to zeros ("0"). But those last 3 digits, if you look at the serial numbers in green, is exactly thoos 3 that makes every serial unique.
This is a problem for me in other parts of my workbook where I use a COUNTIF formula to verify that there a no duplicates in any serial numbers. But because of Excel's way of handling the data in those 8 cells I get a result of 6 duplicates, which is incorrect.
Picture1 serial numbers in question:
Picture2 the format problem:
Any ideas how to resolve this?
I have a table containing serial numbers and a lot of other data. The table is created through a power query that pulls the data out of an access db.
In the Access DB the data is entered as "short text", because serial numbers often includes letters.
In the PowerQuery the data is recognized as text "ABC"
The table has more than 5000+ rows but for 8 of these rows the data is a very long serial number, only containing numbers. For some reason Excel treats all cells that contain only numbers as numbers and not text and for these 8 cells it creates a problem because of the length. Excel is putting in a comma (9,88........) and because Excel can only store up to 15 significant digits. It converts any others after that to zeros ("0"). But those last 3 digits, if you look at the serial numbers in green, is exactly thoos 3 that makes every serial unique.
This is a problem for me in other parts of my workbook where I use a COUNTIF formula to verify that there a no duplicates in any serial numbers. But because of Excel's way of handling the data in those 8 cells I get a result of 6 duplicates, which is incorrect.
Picture1 serial numbers in question:
Picture2 the format problem:
Any ideas how to resolve this?
