Calc - failing search on numbers

users
#1

hi

I've got a table of numbers of general format which i change (using
Format/Cells) to make the display of numbers less than 10 have a leading zero.
I cannot search for "07" etc as it will not find it, it will only search for
"7" which finds me all the numbers with a "7" in it.

How can i force the search to look for "07"?

regards

Ian

Libreoffice on opensuse Tumbleweed
Version: 4.4.2.2
Build ID: 40m0(Build:2)
Locale: en_GB

#2

Search for 7 because this is the numeric value you are after. When in
doubt about the correct search string for constant numbers, have a look
at the status bar.
If "007", "07" and "7" should be different cell values, then you should
store them as text values rather than numbers.

#3

You can format the column as text which treats new input as literal text
but without changing any existing value.
If you want numeric text with 10-digits, =TEXT(A1,"0000000000") converts
any number in A1 into a text value of the given format. The second
argument can be any number format code you would use to format a number
in your default locale context.
Finally you would paste-special the converted numbers over the original
values.

#4

In the Find & Replace dialogue, tick the "Entire cells" option and search for "7". This will find cells with the numeric value 7, even if displayed as "7", "07", 007" etc., but will not find 17 or 72.

Alternatively, you should ask yourself whether you really need numbers here (so that you can calculate using them) or perhaps instead identifiers that just happen to be made up of digits. If the latter, you would be better (as has already been suggested) having your values as text. With the text string "07" in a cell, you can easily search for "07".

Note that digit strings are not always numbers:

o The Zip code for City Hall in Boston, USA, is 02201; that's not two thousand two hundred and one, nor can you write it "2201" or "2,201" or "002201". What does it mean if the Zip code for one location is the sum of the codes for two others? (Answer: nothing!)

o My telephone area code (here in London, UK) is "020"; that's not twenty.

o If your (unwise) PIN was set as "0987", you could not get money out of an ATM using "987" or "00987". Nor do you get more money by having a "larger" PIN.

o James Bond was not Agent Seven.

I trust this helps.

Brian Barker

#5

thanks. i just like to have the same number of digits for all numbers, it
looks neater to me. if i'd have gone into the hundreds, i'd like to see 001
in the list and not just 1.