Number Formatting

By default, Excel applies the General number format to worksheet cells. This format displays numbers just as they're entered (Figure 3).

Figure 3. General formatting displays the numbers just as they're typed in and uses scientific notation when they're very big.

Excel offers a wide variety of predefined number formatting options for different purposes:

  • Number formats are used for general number display.

  • Currency formats are used for monetary values.

  • Accounting formats are used to line up columns of monetary values.

  • Date formats are used to display dates.

  • Time formats are used to display times.

  • Percentage formats are used to display ...

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