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If I type in a 16 digit number (format: number, no decimals) it changes the number on me. Example: 1234567812345678 changes the view to 1234567812345670.

If I type it in as a general format it changes the numbers above so it displays 1.23457E+15 but if you click on the cell, the display shows the last digit as a 0 instead of an 8 once again.

I opened the file on a different computer and same issue now with it. I have changed the auto correction and auto formatting all to no avail. Help!

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"16 digit number" suggests a credit card number, which definitely should not go in an (unencrypted) spreadsheet and is subject to strict security regulations. – PleaseStand Jun 17 '12 at 22:10

2 Answers

up vote 8 down vote

It is a limitation placed on Excel by Microsoft. Each cell can have a maximum 15 digits of precision.

http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/excel-help/excel-specifications-and-limits-HP005199291.aspx

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+1 "This is caused by the IEEE specification of storing only 15 significant digits of precision." (Source: support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;78113) – Kaze Jun 16 '12 at 22:44
Not the answer I wanted, but I appreciate the reason for why it was driving me crazy. Thanks for taking the time to answer! – Going Crazy Jun 16 '12 at 23:14
up vote 3 down vote

In addition to wbeard52's answer, here are some workarounds:

  1. Entering the numbers as text. You may type a ' before each number, or change the cell's number format to Text.
  2. There's an addin called Xnumbers which "performs multi-precision floating point arithmetic from 1 up to 250 significant digits."
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