Input Really Long Numbers into Excel

Excel truncates any number longer than 15 characters in length. This means that any number longer than that will have everything after 15 turned into zeros.

If you type: 1234567890123456789

Excel will change that to: 1234567890123450000

To keep your long number, type a single quotation mark/comma in front of the number. The new number would be input like this:

'1234567890123456789

You will only see the single quote when you double-click the cell to edit it.

Once you hit Enter, it will no longer be visible.

Notes

This method effectively changes your number into "text" as far as Excel is concerned. You will still be able to see this number but you won't be able to do much with it as far as mathematical operations are concerned.

Download the attached workbook to see this in Excel.