In a number format code with two sections, the first section applies to positive values and zero, and the second section applies to negative values.
In a number format code with three sections, the first section applies to positive values, the second section to negative values, and the third section to the value zero.
You can also assign conditions to the three sections, so that the format is only applied if a condition is met.
Fourth section applies if the content is not a value, but some text. Content is represented by an at sign (@).

Decimal Places and Significant Digits

Use zero (0), the number sign (#) or the question mark (?) as placeholders in your number format code to represent numbers. The # only displays significant digits, while the 0 displays zeros if there are fewer digits in the number than in the number format. The ? works as the # but adds a space character to keep decimal alignment if there is a hidden non-significant zero.

Use question marks (?), zeros (0) or number signs (#) to represent the number of digits to include in the numerator and the denominator of a fraction. Fractions that do not fit the pattern that you define are displayed as floating point numbers.

If a number contains more digits to the right of the decimal delimiter than there are placeholders in the format, the number is rounded accordingly. If a number contains more digits to the left of the decimal delimiter than there are placeholders in the format, the entire number is displayed. Use the following list as a guide for using placeholders when you create a number format code:

Placeholders	Explanation
#	Does not display extra zeros.
?	Displays space characters instead of extra zeros.
0 (Zero)	Displays extra zeros if the number has less places than zeros in the format.

Examples

Number Format	Format Code
3456.78 as 3456.8	####.#
9.9 as 9.900	#.000
13 as 13.0 and 1234.567 as 1234.57	#.0#
5.75 as 5 3/4 and 6.3 as 6 3/10	# ???/???
.5 as 0.5	0.##
.5 as 0.5 (with two extra spaces at the end)	0.???

Thousands Separator

Depending on your language setting, you can use a comma, a period or a blank as a thousands separator. You can also use the separator to reduce the size of the number that is displayed by a multiple of 1000 for each separator. The examples below use comma as thousands separator:

Number Format	Format Code
15000 as 15,000	#,###
16000 as 16	#,

Including Text in Number Format Codes

Text and Numbers

To include text in a number format that is applied to a cell containing numbers, place a double quotation mark (") in front of and behind the text, or a backslash (\) before a single character. For example, enter #.# "meters" to display "3.5 meters" or #.# \m to display "3.5 m". If you use space as thousands separator, you need to insert spaces between quotes in the previous examples: #.#" meters" or #.#\ \m to get the correct result.

Text and Text

To include text in a number format that is applied to a cell that might contain text, enclose the text by double quotation marks (" "), and then add an at sign (@). For example, enter "Total for "@ to display "Total for December".

Spaces

To use a character to define the width of a space in a number format, type an underscore (-) followed by the character. The width of the space varies according to the width of the character that you choose. For example, -M creates a wider space than -i.

To fill free space with a given character, use an asterisk (*) followed by this character. For instance:

*\0

will display integer value (0) preceded by as many as needed backslash characters (\) to fill column width. For accounting representation, you may left align currency symbol with a format similar to:

$--* 0.--;$-* 0.--;$--* -

Colour

To set the colour of a section of a number format code, insert one of the following colour names in square brackets [ ]:

CYAN	GREEN
BLACK	BLUE
MAGENTA	RED
WHITE	YELLOW

Conditions

Conditional Brackets

You can define a number format so that it only applies when the condition that you specify is met. Conditions are enclosed by square brackets [ ].

You can use any combination of numbers and the <, <=, >, >=, = and <> operators.

For example, if you want to apply different colours to different temperature data, enter:

[BLUE][<0]#.0 "°C";[RED][>30]#.0 "°C";[BLACK]#.0 "°C"

All temperatures below zero are blue, temperatures between 0 and 30 °C are black, and temperatures higher than 30 °C are red.

Positive and Negative Numbers

To define a number format that adds a different text to a number depending on if the number is positive, negative, or equal to zero, use the following format:

"plus" 0;"minus" 0;"null" 0

Percentages, Scientific Notation and Fraction Representation

Percentages

To display numbers as percentages, add the percent sign (%) to the number format.

Scientific Notation

Scientific notation lets you write very large numbers or very small fractions in a compact form. For example, in scientific notation, 650000 is written as 6.5 x 105, and 0.000065 as 6.5 x 10-5. In Office, these numbers are written as 6.5E+5 and 6.5E-5, respectively. To create a number format that displays numbers using scientific notation, enter a # or 0, and then one of the following codes E-, E+, e- or e+. If sign is omitted after E or e, it won't appear for positive value of exponent. To get engineering notation, enter 3 digits (0 or #) in the integer part: ###.##E+00 for instance.

Fraction Representation

To represent a value as a fraction, format consists of two or three parts: integer optional part, numerator and denominator. Integer and numerator are separated by a blank or any quoted text. Numerator and denominator are separated by a slash character. Each part can consist of a combination of #, ? and 0 as placeholders.

Denominator is calculated to get the nearest value of the fraction with respect to the number of placeholders. For example, PI value is represented as 3 16/113 with format:

# ?/???

Denominator value can also be forced to the value replacing placeholders. For example, to get PI value as a multiple of 1/16th (i.e. 50/16), use format:

?/16

Number Format Codes of Currency Formats

The default currency format for the cells in your spreadsheet is determined by the regional setting of your operating system. If you want, you can apply a custom currency symbol to a cell. For example, enter #,##0.00 € to display 4.50 € (Euro).

You can also specify the locale setting for the currency by entering the locale code for the country after the symbol. For example, [$€-407] represents Euro in Germany. To view the locale code for a country, select the country in the Language list on the Numbers tab of the Format Cells dialogue box.

The format code for currencies uses the form [$xxx-nnn], where xxx is the currency symbol, and nnn the country code. Special banking symbols, such as EUR (for euro), do not require the country code. The currency format is not dependent on the language that you select in the Language box.

Date and Time Formats

Date Formats

To display days, months and years, use the following number format codes.

Not all format codes give meaningful results for all languages.

Format	Format Code
Month as 3.	M
Month as 03.	MM
Month as Jan-Dec	MMM
Month as January-December	MMMM
First letter of Name of Month	MMMMM
Day as 2	D
Day as 02	DD
Day as Sun-Sat	NN or DDD or AAA
Day as Sunday to Saturday	NNN or DDDD or AAAA
Day followed by comma, as in "Sunday,"	NNNN
Year as 00-99	YY
Year as 1900-2078	YYYY
Calendar week	WW
Quarterly as Q1 to Q4	Q
Quarterly as 1st quarter to 4th quarter	QQ
Era, abbreviation. On the Japanese Gengou calendar, single character (possible values are: M, T, S, H)	G
Era, abbreviation	GG
Era, full name	GGG
Number of the year within an era, short format	E
Number of the year within an era, long format	EE or R
Era, full name and year	RR or GGGEE

The above listed formatting codes work with your language version of Office. However, when you need to switch the locale of Office to another locale, you need to know the formatting codes used in that other locale.

For example, if your software is set to an English locale, and you want to format a year with four digits, you enter YYYY as a formatting code. When you switch to a German locale, you must use JJJJ instead. The following table lists only the localised differences.

Locale	Year	Month	Day	Hour	Day Of Week	Era
English - en and all not listed locales	Y	M	D	H	A	G
German - de	J		T
Netherlands - nl	J			U
French - fr	A		J		O
Italian - it	A		G		O	X
Portuguese - pt	A				O
Spanish - es	A				O
Danish - da				T
Norwegian - no, nb, nn				T
Swedish - sv				T
Finnish - fi	V	K	P	T

Entering Dates

To enter a date in a cell, use the Gregorian calendar format. For example, in an English locale, enter 1/2/2002 for Jan 2, 2002.

All date formats are dependent on the locale that is set in Tools - Options - Language settings - Languages. For example, if your locale is set to 'Japanese', then the Gengou calendar is used. The default date format in Office uses the Gregorian Calendar.

To specify a calendar format that is independent of the locale, add a modifier in front of the date format. For example, to display a date using the Jewish calendar format in a non-Hebrew locale, enter: [~jewish]DD/MM/YYYY.

The specified calendar is exported to Microsoft Excel using extended LCID. Extended LCID can also be used in the format string. It will be converted to a calendar modifier if it is supported. See Extended LCID section below.

Modifier	Calendar
[~buddhist]	Thai Buddhist Calendar
[~gengou]	Japanese Gengou Calendar
[~gregorian]	Gregorian Calendar
[~hanja] or [~hanja-yoil]	Korean Calendar
[~hijri]	Arabic Islamic Calendar
[~jewish]	Jewish Calendar
[~ROC]	Republic Of China Calendar

If you perform a calculation that involves one or more cells using a date format, the result is formatted according to the following mappings:

Initial Format	Result Format
Date + Date	Number (Days)
Date + Number	Date
Date + Time	Date&Time
Date + Date&Time	Number
Time + Time	Time
Time + Number	Time
Time + Date&Time	Date&Time
Date&Time + Date&Time	Time
Date&Time + Number	Date&Time
Number + Number	Number

The Date & Time format displays the date and time that an entry was made to a cell with this format.

In Office, years are indicated by four digits, so that the difference between 01/01/99 and 01/01/01 is two years. This Year (two digits) setting allows the user to define the years in which two-digit dates are added to 2000. To illustrate, if you specify a date of 01/01/30 or later, the entry "01/01/20" is recognised as 2020-01-01 instead of 1920-01-01.

By default in Office, a date with the value "0" corresponds to Dec 30, 1899.

Time Formats

To display hours, minutes and seconds use the following number format codes:

Format	Format Code
Hours as 0-23	H
Hours as 00-23	HH
Hours as 00 up to more than 23	[HH]
Minutes as 0-59	M
Minutes as 00-59	MM
Minutes as 00 up to more than 59	[MM]
Seconds as 0-59	S
Seconds as 00-59	SS
Seconds as 00 up to more than 59	[SS]

To display seconds as fractions, add the decimal delimiter to your number format code. For example, enter HH:MM:SS.00 to display the time as "01:02:03.45".

Minute time formats M and MM must be used in combination with hour or second time formats to avoid confusion with month date format.

If a time is entered in the form 02:03.45 or 01:02:03.45 or 25:01:02, the following formats are assigned if no other time format has been specified: MM:SS.00 or [HH]:MM:SS.00 or [HH]:MM:SS

Displaying Numbers Using Native Characters

NatNum modifiers

To display numbers using native number characters, use a [NatNum1], [NatNum2], ..., [NatNum11] modifier at the beginning of a number format codes.

To spell out numbers in various number, currency and date formats, use a [NatNum12] modifier with the chosen arguments at the beginning of a number format code. See NatNum12 section below.

The [NatNum1] modifier always uses a one to one character mapping to convert numbers to a string that matches the native number format code of the corresponding locale. The other modifiers produce different results if they are used with different locales. A locale can be the language and the territory for which the format code is defined, or a modifier such as [$-yyy] that follows the native number modifier. In this case, yyy is the hexadecimal MS-LCID that is also used in currency format codes. For example, to display a number using Japanese short Kanji characters in an English US locale, use the following number format code:

[NatNum1][$-411]0

In the following list, the Microsoft Excel [DBNumX] modifier that corresponds to Office [NatNum] modifier is shown. If you want, you can use a [DBNumX] modifier instead of [NatNum] modifier for your locale. Whenever possible, Office internally maps [DBNumX] modifiers to [NatNumN] modifiers.

Displaying dates using [NatNum] modifiers can have a different effect than displaying other types of numbers. Such effects are indicated by 'CAL: '. For example, 'CAL: 1/4/4' indicates that the year is displayed using the [NatNum1] modifier, while the day and month are displayed using the [NatNum4] modifier. If 'CAL' is not specified, the date formats for that particular modifier are not supported.

[NatNum0]

Try to convert any native number string to ASCII Arabic digits. If already ASCII, it remains ASCII.

[NatNum1]

Transliterations	Native Number Characters	DBNumX	Date Format
Chinese	Chinese lower case characters		CAL: 1/7/7 [DBNum1]
Japanese	short Kanji characters	[DBNum1]	CAL: 1/4/4 [DBNum1]
Korean	Korean lower case characters	[DBNum1]	CAL: 1/7/7 [DBNum1]
Hebrew	Hebrew characters
Arabic	Arabic-Indic characters
Thai	Thai characters
Hindi	Indic-Devanagari characters
Odia	Odia (Oriya) characters
Marathi	Indic-Devanagari characters
Bengali	Bengali characters
Punjabi	Punjabi (Gurmukhi) characters
Gujarati	Gujarati characters
Tamil	Tamil characters
Telugu	Telugu characters
Kannada	Kannada characters
Malayalam	Malayalam characters
Lao	Lao characters
Tibetan	Tibetan characters
Burmese	Burmese (Myanmar) characters
Khmer	Khmer (Cambodian) characters
Mongolian	Mongolian characters
Nepali	Indic-Devanagari characters
Dzongkha	Tibetan characters
Farsi	East Arabic-Indic characters
Church Slavic	Cyrillic characters

[NatNum2]

Transliterations	Native Number Characters	DBNumX	Date Format
Chinese	Chinese upper case characters		CAL 2/8/8 [DBNum2]
Japanese	traditional Kanji characters		CAL 2/5/5 [DBNum2]
Korean	Korean upper case characters	[DBNum2]	CAL 2/8/8 [DBNum2]
Hebrew	Hebrew numbering

[NatNum3]

Transliterations	Native Number Characters	DBNumX	Date Format
Chinese	fullwidth Arabic digits		CAL: 3/3/3 [DBNum3]
Japanese	fullwidth Arabic digits		CAL: 3/3/3 [DBNum3]
Korean	fullwidth Arabic digits	[DBNum3]	CAL: 3/3/3 [DBNum3]

[NatNum4]

Transliterations	Native Number Characters	DBNumX
Chinese	lower case text	[DBNum1]
Japanese	modern long Kanji text	[DBNum2]
Korean	formal lower case text

[NatNum5]

Transliterations	Native Number Characters	DBNumX
Chinese	Chinese upper case text	[DBNum2]
Japanese	traditional long Kanji text	[DBNum3]
Korean	formal upper case text

[NatNum6]

Transliterations	Native Number Characters	DBNumX
Chinese	fullwidth text	[DBNum3]
Japanese	fullwidth text
Korean	fullwidth text

[NatNum7]

Transliterations	Native Number Characters	DBNumX	Date Format
Chinese	short lower case text
Japanese	modern short Kanji text
Korean	informal lower case text

[NatNum8]

Transliterations	Native Number Characters	DBNumX
Chinese	short upper case text
Japanese	traditional short Kanji text	[DBNum4]
Korean	informal upper case text

[NatNum9]

Transliterations	Native Number Characters	DBNumX	Date Format
Korean	Hangul characters

[NatNum10]

Transliterations	Native Number Characters	DBNumX	Date Format
Korean	formal Hangul text	[DBNum4]	CAL 9/11/11 [DBNum4]

[NatNum11]

Transliterations	Native Number Characters	DBNumX	Date Format
Korean	informal Hangul text

Extended LCID

If compatible, native numbering and calendar are exported to Microsoft Excel using extended LCID. Extended LCID can also be used in string format instead of NatNum modifier.

Extended LCID consists of 8 hexadecimal digits: [$-NNCCLLLL], with 2 first digits NN for native numerals, CC for calendar and LLLL for LCID code. For instance, [$-0D0741E] will be converted to [NatNum1][$-41E][~buddhist]: Thai numerals (0D) with Buddhist calendar (07) in Thai locale (041E).

Native Numerals

Two first digits NN represents native numerals:

NN	Numeral	Representation	Compatible LCID
01	Arabic	1234567890	all
02	Eastern Arabic	١٢٣٤٥٦٧٨٩٠	401 1401, 3c01, 0c01, 801, 2c01, 3401, 3001, 1001, 1801, 2001, 4001, 2801, 1c01, 3801, 2401
03	Persian	۱۲۳۴۵۶۷۸۹۰	429
04	Devanagari	१२३४५६७८९०	439 44E, 461, 861
05	Bengali	১২৩৪৫৬৭৮৯০	445 845
06	Punjabi	੧੨੩੪੫੬੭੮੯੦	446
07	Gujarati	૧૨૩૪૫૬૭૮૯૦	447
08	Oriya	୧୨୩୪୫୬୭୮୯୦	448
09	Tamil	௧௨௩௪௫௬௭௮௯0	449 849
0A	Telugu	౧౨౩౪౫౬౭౮౯౦	44A
0B	Kannada	೧೨೩೪೫೬೭೮೯೦	44B
0C	Malayalam	൧൨൩൪൫൬൭൮൯൦	44C
0D	Thai	๑๒๓๔๕๖๗๘๙๐	41E
0E	Lao	໑໒໓໔໕໖໗໘໙໐	454
0F	Tibetan	༡༢༣༤༥༦༧༨༩༠	851
10	Burmese	၁၂၃၄၅၆၇၈၉၀	455
11	Tigrina	፩፪፫፬፭፮፯፰፱0	473 873
12	Khmer	១២៣៤៥៦៧៨៩០	453
13	Mongolian	᠑᠒᠓᠔᠕᠖᠗᠘᠙᠐	C50 850
1B	Japanese	一二三四五六七八九〇	411
1C	(financial)	壱弐参四伍六七八九〇
1D	(fullwidth Arabic)	１２３４５６７８９０
1E	Chinese - simplified	一二三四五六七八九○	804 1004, 7804
1F	(financial)	壹贰叁肆伍陆柒捌玖零
20	(fullwidth Arabic)	１２３４５６７８９０
21	Chinese - traditional	一二三四五六七八九○	C04 1404
22	(financial)	壹貳參肆伍陸柒捌玖零
23	(fullwidth Arabic)	１２３４５６７８９０
24	Korean	一二三四五六七八九０	812
25	(financial)	壹貳參四伍六七八九零
26	(fullwidth Arabic)	１２３４５６７８９０
27	Korean - Hangul	일이삼사오육칠팔구영

Calendar

Two next digits CC are for calendar code. Each calendar is only valid for some LCID.

CC	Calendar	Example (YYYY-MM-DD)	Supported LCID
00	Gregorian	2016-08-31	All
03	Gengou	28-08-31	411 (Japanese)
05	Unknown	4349-08-31	Unsupported
06 or 17	Hijri	1437-11-28	401 (Arabic - Saudi Arabia), 1401 (Arabic - Algeria), 3c01 (Arabic - Bahrain), 0c01 (Arabic - Egypt), 801 (Arabic - Iraq), 2c01 (Arabic - Jordan), 3401 (Arabic - Kuwait), 3001 (Arabic - Lebanon), 1001 (Arabic - Libya), 1801 (Arabic - Morocco), 2001 (Arabic - Oman), 4001 (Arabic - Qatar), 2801 (Arabic - Syria), 1c01 (Arabic - Tunisia), 3801 (Arabic - U.A.E.), 2401 (Arabic - Yemen) and 429 (Farsi)
07	Buddhist	2559-08-31	454 (Lao), 41E (Thai)
08	Jewish	5776-05-27	40D (Hebrew)
10	Indian	1938-06-09	Unsupported
0E, 0F, 11, 12 or 13	Unknown	2016-07-29	Unsupported
Unsupported	Hanja		412 (Korean)
Unsupported	ROC	0105-08-31	404 (Chinese - Taiwan)

NatNum12 modifier

To spell out numbers in various number, currency and date formats, use a [NatNum12] modifier with the chosen arguments at the beginning of a number format code.

Common NatNum12 formatting examples

Formatting code	Explanation
[NatNum12]	Spell out as cardinal number: 1 → one
[NatNum12 ordinal]	Spell out as ordinal number: 1 → first
[NatNum12 ordinal-number]	Spell out as ordinal indicator: 1 → 1st
[NatNum12 capitalize]	Spell out with capitalisation, as cardinal number: 1 → One
[NatNum12 upper ordinal]	Spell out in upper case, as ordinal number: 1 → FIRST
[NatNum12 title]	Spell out in title case, as cardinal number: 101 → Hundred One
[NatNum12 USD]	Spell out as a money amount of a given currency specified by 3-letter ISO code: 1 → one U.S. dollar
[NatNum12 D=ordinal-number]D" of "MMMM	Spell out as a date in format "1st of May"
[NatNum12 YYYY=title year,D=capitalise ordinal]D" of "MMMM, YYYY	Spell out as a date in format "First of May, Nineteen Ninety-nine"
[NatNum12 MMM=upper]MMM-DD	Display upper case abbreviated month name in format "JAN-01"
[NatNum12 MMMM=lower]MMMM	Display lower case month name in format "january"

Other possible arguments: "money" before 3-letter currency codes, for example [NatNum12 capitalise money USD]0.00 will format number "1.99" as "One and 99/100 U.S. Dollars".

Error Codes

If the value is outside the limits for the selected format the following error code is shown:

#FMT