On Excel, why do I get cell showing ########### [duplicate]

Question

Possible Duplicate:
Excel displays ### for long text - what’s wrong?

On Excel, I get a cell showing ###########.... It is a text cell, and contains a string that starts with character: "-"

How to show it correctly?

One of the answers to the duplicate should help you. It would also help if you included the whole of the text that was in the cell, and what format the cell was (text, money, number)

nerdwaller · Answer 1 · 2012-10-25 14:53:25Z

up vote 2 down vote

There are two possibilities

1) The string is too long to display (just slide the cell longer)

2) Interpreted as a formula, so start the cell with a '

example:

'-This is my string

Not trying to be rude, but that was a simple quick search for me. Did you search before posting?

My search term: "start excel cell with minus sign"

edited Oct 25 '12 at 14:53

answered Oct 25 '12 at 14:44

nerdwaller
4,3241315

	Thanks, my searches didn't success because #### characters are not recognized. Also, reading (superuser.com/questions/65556/…) "The display problem should be solved by changing the cell to "general" rather than "text" " – user316687 Oct 25 '12 at 14:51
	No worries, I was just curious. I know the search terms will drastically change the content of what you get. – nerdwaller Oct 25 '12 at 15:18

marked as duplicate by ChrisF, CharlieRB, Dennis, slhck♦ Oct 25 '12 at 15:35