Excel number format codes

In Excel, you aren’t limited to using built-in number formats. You can define your own custom number formats to display values as thousands or millions (23K or 95.3M), add leading zeros, display » — » for zero values, make negative values red, add bullets, and much more.

Watch the video we created to go along with this article!

How to Create a Custom Number Format

To create a custom number format, it is easiest to begin with a built-in format. Open the Format Cells dialog box by pressing Ctrl+1 (or right-click on a cell and select Format Cells) and select the Number tab (see the image below). Then (1) Choose Custom from the Category list, (2) Select a built-in format similar to what you want, and (3) Edit the format string in the Type field.

Number Format Codes

A number format string uses up to 4 different codes, separated by semicolons, as shown in the image below.

Instead of explaining the syntax in detail at this point, let’s take a look at some examples and learn as we go.

Some of the characters like #, 0, @, etc. have special meanings. Some codes like [Red] can change the font color, and quotes can be used to display text or special characters. The table below summarizes some of these special characters.

Special Characters in Number Formats

NOTE Some characters are specific to locale/language settings. For example J is used for Year in some countries.

Custom Number Format Examples

The examples below show some of the custom number formats that I’ve found the most useful. This isn’t a comprehensive list of all possible number formats. See support.microsoft.com to search for other articles on this subject.

TIP Using a custom number format only affects the displayed value. A formula that references the cell will use the stored value no matter how it is displayed. This means you can still use a formula to refer to the value even though the number might be displayed as «12 ft.»

To see these examples in action, download the Excel file below.

Download the Example File (CustomNumberFormats.xlsx)

Custom Number Format for Thousands and Millions

NOTE These are very useful for chart axes and labels.

Display Leading Zeros and Include Commas

Display Units Without Converting to Text

Special Time Formats

There are quite a few built-in time formats to choose from. The following may be less known.

Including Special Symbols

Some ascii and unicode characters can be copied and pasted directly into the format code. This can be handy for displaying the degrees symbol for temperatures as well as other tricks like showing up and down arrows or bulleted lists.

Displaying Fractions

Trailing and Leading Characters to Fill a Cell

The asterisk (*) in a format code repeats the following character to fill the width of the cell.

Custom Number Formats for Chart Axes and Labels

A couple of these examples can be seen in the image below. However, notice that the data labels don’t use color codes, so the percentages are shown only as black text rather than red and green. Too bad. Maybe Microsoft will fix that some day.

NOTE Editing a custom number format that contains a carriage return is tricky because you can’t see the second row. This is why I write out the code first using «{Ctrl+j}» or just «{j}» and then delete the «{j}» and press Ctrl+j in its place.

When adding a custom number format using the Format Axis window pane, you may not be able to press Ctrl+j to add a carriage return. In that case, first edit the format of the data source, then click on the Link to Source box as shown in the image to the right. After doing that, you can uncheck the Link to Source box and modify the original data source formatting.

Other Tricks

NOTE If you are looking for format codes for phone numbers, social security numbers, or zip codes, look in the Special category within the list of built-in number formats.

Custom Number Format Color Codes

By using color format codes such as [Red] or [Blue] or [Color10], you have a limited ability to alter the color of the font via custom number formats. The most common use I’ve seen is to color negative values red. However, one of the examples above also shows how you might want to use a green arrow.

Even though a new color palette was introduced in Excel 2007, the color codes for custom number formats are still based on the old color palette for the Excel 97-2003 format. I created the graphic below to provide a quick reference.

I made the above color code reference match the layout of the old color palette because there is not a consistent pattern to the numbering.

Define Your Own Color: You can modify the color palette in newer versions of Excel by going to File > Options > Save > Colors. This allows you to change the color associated with the Color1 through Color56 codes. This means that Color10 might not always be a dark green. If you purposely change the color palette (or somebody else does), Color10 might be some other color.

Excel 2016: File > Options > Save > Colors

NOTE The Color1-56 codes in Google Sheets are fixed colors and aren’t changed when you upload an Excel file with a customized color palette.

Conditional Operators

Conditional operators such as [<100] can be used to change the formatting in cases where positive;negative;0 is not how you want the divisions defined.

For example, the following format will display numbers less than 10 red, numbers between 10 and 20 green, other numbers blue, and text will be displayed based on the cell’s font color: [Red][<10]0.00;[Green][<=20]0.00;[Blue]0.00;@

You are limited to 2 numeric conditions, which you place in the negative and positive sections of the format code.

Another use of conditional operators is to display phone numbers with and without an area code, depending on how many digits are in the phone number like this: [<=9999999]###-####;(###)###-####. This assumes that the phone numbers are entered as numbers and not text values. Meaning, that if you actually enter 123-1234 into a cell in Excel, it will be interpreted as a text value, not a number. The phone number format will display 1234567 to 123-4567 and it will display 1234567890 to (123)456-7890.

Custom Location Codes for Dates

When displaying month names and weekday names for dates, you can use location codes such as [$-fr-CA] at the beginning of the format code to tell Excel to display the names in other languages. To learn what the code is for a specific language and location, use the Format Cells dialog in Excel, choose one of the built-in Date formats, then choose the Locale (location) from the drop-down list. Then you can return to the Format Cells dialog box and click on the Custom tab to see what location code was added.

Other Notes About Custom Number Formats

To delete a custom number format, open the Format Cells dialog box, select the custom format from the list, then click Delete. When you delete a custom number format, all values in your workbook that use that format will revert to the General format.

Custom number formats that you create are saved with the file. If you want to use the custom format in a different file, you can copy/paste the formatting from your other file by copying and pasting the formatted cell or using the Format Painter tool.

References

• Number Formats for Charts by Jon Peltier, Excel MVP
• Excel Custom Number Format Guide by Mynda Treacy, Excel MVP

Excel provides many default number formats. But often, these formats are not enough. That’s were custom number formats come into play. Let’s take a look some examples:

• You want to display number in thousands or millions?
• Or have a thousands separator for percentage values?
• Or show a plus sign for positive values?

In such case, you need to create a custom number format. In this article, you learn everything you need to know. For making it easier for you, please feel free to download the example Excel file or the handy custom format card for printing it out.

Inserting a custom number format in Excel is very easy:

1. Press Ctrl + 1 on the keyboard and go to “Custom” on the left-hand side.
2. Now you can enter your own custom number format code.

Recommendation: Select a number format which is very close to your desired format first (number (0) on the screenshot). That way you only have to do some minor changes and don’t have to create the whole format from the scratch.

How do custom formats work?

Structure of custom number formats

If you create a custom number format, you have to regard some rules. A custom number format can be only a few characters or a long text string. They have at least one and at most four parts. Here are the four parts:

• Each part is divided by the ; (semicolon).
• A number format must at least have one part. All other parts can be omitted. If omitted, the first part counts for the later numbers. For example: You just define the positive number format. This formatting will be used for negative values, zeros and text (as far as possible).
• In practice, the fourth part is hardly used.

Let’s go through the 4 sections:

1. The first part is used for defining positive numbers. Also, if the following parts aren’t used, this format is used for negative number, zeros and text too.
2. Second part: If you want, you can define a different number format for negative number.
3. Do you want to have a special format for zeros? You can set it in the third section of the format code.
4. The fourth part is used for text. If there is no fourth part (and therefore no third semicolon) text will be shown normally. But if you use the fourth part, use the @ sign for showing it. If you don’t insert the add sign, text won’t be displayed.

Important basics for the shortcuts

Steps for creating your own custom number format

There are 3 steps for creating your own custom number format. The idea is to do it as simple as possible and therefore utilize built-in features. The 3 steps are shown with the example on the right-hand side. You want to create a custom number format, which

• uses thousands separators and 2 decimals,
• highlights negative number in red font color,
• displays 0 with no decimals and
• hides text.

Step 1: Choose a number format in the “Format Cells” window

As the first step, choose a built-in number format which is very close to the one you eventually want to create.

1. Open the “Format Cells” window by pressing Ctrl + 1 on the keyboard.
2. Go to “Number“.
3. Check the tick of the thousands separator and change the decimal numbers to 2.
4. Click on “OK“.

If you open the “Format Cells” window again and click on “Custom” on the left-hand side, you’ll see the format code. In this example it should be #,##0.00 .

Step 2: Further modify the number format

In this example, you want to further modify the number format for negative values, zeros and text. You continue with the code #,##0.00  created in step 1 above. If there is just one section, the format code is used for all kinds of values: For positive values, negative values, zeros and text because there is no particular definition for negative numbers, zeros and text.

• For negative values, you want to use the minus sign and use red color.
  • Copy the format code to create a second section. Now you got the format code #,##0.00;#,##0.00 .
  • Add the minus sign to the second part. #,##0.00;-#,##0.00 .
  • Add the code for red color for negative values: #,##0.00;[Red]-#,##0.00 .
• Zeros should just have one digit.
  • Add a third part to the code above by inserting a semi-colon at the end: #,##0.00;[Red]-#,##0.00;
  • As there should only be one digit, type “0”. #,##0.00;[Red]-#,##0.00;0
• For a text value, you want to show nothing.
  • Add a forth part to your code and leave it blank. That way, no value will be shown for text.
  • You custom format code now is #,##0.00;[Red]-#,##0.00;0; .

Step 3: Fine-tune the number of decimals

In the last step, you can further fine-tune the number of decimals. Therefore, use the buttons “Increase Decimal” or “Decrease Decimal” in the center of the “Home” ribbon.

Most popular codes

You don’t want to create your own code but just copy & paste one of the most popular custom number formats? Here are the most frequently asked codes.

Thousands + Millions

In many Excel tables, you can see divisions by 1000 or multiplications by 1000 in order to convert values to thousands or millions. An easier and more reliable way is to always use total values and just display them as thousands or millions.

The easiest way: Add a comma “.” to your code.

If you got this code #,##0  just add a comma “,” and you got #,##0, . That way, 2,345 becomes 2.

For more information about thousands and millions, please refer to this article.

Plus sign for positive values

You want to show the plus sign for positive values? For example in charts? Use this code:

• +0;-0;0  for the following format: +1234 for positive values, -1234 for negative values and 0 for zeroes
• +#,##0;-#,##0;0  for the following format: +1,234 for positive values, -1,234 and 0 for zeroes.

Thousands separator for percentage

Sometimes, you got percentage values larger than 1000%. Excel doesn’t provide a thousands separator for such numbers. The following format adds the thousands separator:

#,##0%

Hide zeros

There are several ways to hide zeroes in Excel. Please refer to this article for more information about the other methods.

If you want to hide zeros with a custom number format, make sure to use a third part of the number format and leave it blank. Some examples:

• You got this code before: 0 . This is the default number format. In this case you have to add two parts (the second part handles negative values and the third part zeros): 0;-0;
• You got this code before: #,##0;-#,##0.  Use a third part by just adding a semicolon. #,##0;-#,##0;
• For percentage numbers: 0%;-0%;

Weekday name, name of the month, number of the year

Do you want to show a weekday name of a given date? You could either do this with formulas or just display the weekday name of a date cell. Use the following codes:

• Weekday
  • ddd  for the abbreviation: the date 04/21/17 will be shown as “Fri”
  • dddd  for the full name: the date 04/21/17 will be shown as “Friday”
• Month
  • mmm  for the abbreviation: the date 04/21/17 will be shown as “Apr”
  • mmmm  for the full name: the date 04/21/17 will be shown as “April”
• Year
  • yy  for just the last two digits: the date 04/21/17 will be shown as “17”
  • yyyy  for the full year number: the date 04/21/17 will be shown as “2017”

Tips and tricks

• Some formatting can also be done by conditional formatting rules. If your custom number format becomes too complex, please switch to conditional formatting rules. They are usually easier to use and provide more options.
• Use copy and paste as often as possible. Either for the formatting itself, or for the custom number code. That way, you can save a lot of time.
• Do you want to change the thousand separator, for example use a full stop instead of a comma? You could achieve this either in the “Region” settings of Windows or override the thousands and decimal separator in Excel. Please refer to this article for more information.

Free Download

As a gift for you, please feel free to download these files:

• A handy printout with the most common custom format codes. It’s a one-page PDF file. Download it here.
• The same codes as an Excel table. Maybe it’s easier for you to copy & paste the formats. Download it here.

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One more recommendation for custom number formats

With our Excel add-in “Professor Excel Tools”, you can create your favorite number format. Even better, you can apply it with just one click. Why don’t you give it a try?

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Image by Pexels from Pixabay

If you used Excel in any shape or form, there is a pretty good chance that you’ve used the formatting and number formatting features. Formatting options like number, currency, percentage, date and time values are easily accessible to users. However, that’s not all there is in the world of text and number formatting. Going down the rabbit hole, custom formatting can help you fully configure Excel’s built-in settings for formatting.

The main advantage of this approach is that you can alter the look of your data without changing the actual values. This means that you do not need to use additional spaces or formulas to create the layout you want and preserve the raw data.

If you want to modify your data anyways, or need to change a value inside a formula, you can use the TEXT function with all custom formatting syntax we are going to cover in this article. It should be noted that the TEXT function returns a text, and the return value cannot be used in mathematical calculations. If you do, you will receive a #VALUE! error. In this article we’re going to be using a workbook template. You can download it below.

How to create a custom number format in Excel

1. Select the cell to be formatted and press Ctrl+1 to open the Format Cells dialog. An alternative way to do is by right-clicking the cell and then going to Format Cells > Number Tab.
2. Under Category, select Custom.
3. Type in the format code into the Type
4. Click OK to save your changes.

Note: In Format Cells dialog you can modify the built-in format codes by selecting the format you want to modify in its own category (i.e. Currency > ($1,234.10)) and then selecting Custom Category. Don’t worry, Excel will not let you delete built-in formats.

Basics

Syntax

The format code has 4 sections separated by semicolons.

POSITIVE; NEGATIVE; ZERO; TEXT

These sections are optional,

• If a code contains only 1 section, the format is applied to all number types — positive, negative and zero.
• If a code contains 2 sections, the first section is used for positive and zero values, while the second section is applied to negative values.
• If a code contains 3 sections, the first is for positive, the second is for negative, and the third is for zero.
• A code only affects text values if all sections exist.

Default format type in Excel is called General. You can type General for sections you don’t want formatted. Make sure you use a minus sign (-) with General if you want to skip negative values.

If you want to completely hide a type, leave it blank after the semicolon. For example; to hide 0 values, General;-General;;General

Placeholders and the Cheat Sheet

Common Practices

Display and control of the first digit and decimals

Decimal places in the code are indicated with a period (.). Number of zeroes after the period (.) define the number of decimal places. For example,

• 0 — display 1 decimal place
• 00 — display 2 decimal places

If the number has more decimals than the decimal placeholders defined, the number will be rounded to the nearest number of placeholders.

Alternatively, hash (#) and question mark (?) symbols can be used as decimal places. However, because any missing decimal places will be filled with zeroes, using zeroes instead will be easier to read.

Add text to numbers

Custom text can be added to the beginning or the end of a value. Text and characters should be added inside quotes («») and backslashes (). You can use backslash () to add single character.

Quotation marks or backslashes are not necessary for spaces ( ) and some special characters.

Below are some special characters you can use by copying or typing in the numerical code while pressing down Alt button.

Hide value

If you leave any number of sections blank, the value of those sections will be hidden. A section should always be separated (defined) by a semicolon (;). Here are some examples,

Replace zeroes with dashes

Zeroes can make data tables look more complicated than they actually are. You can hide them completely by using the previous method, or replace them with any character of your choice. Dash (-) is a common example. All you need to is place a dash into the ‘Zero section’.

Start with zeroes

If try to enter a ZIP number that starts with 0, the leading zeroes will be removed automatically by Excel. To keep the leading zeros, use zero (0) placeholder for whole numbers.

Dealing with thousands, millions, and more

You may have noticed that ‘0.0’ or other simple formats do not separate thousands or millions. Adding a comma into the code will insert commas to separate numbers.

There must be placeholders for numbers smaller than one thousand, otherwise such values will be hidden. This behavior allows us to round and format our value to show only thousands or millions.

Display numbers as phone numbers

Phone numbers can be hard to read without any separators. Custom Number Format Codes is perfect for this job. The hash (#) character should be your best bet to avoid any redundancy of placeholders (0, ?)

Showing Month and Weekday Names

Date and time values are stored as numbers in Excel. When you enter a date, Excel automatically converts it into a numerical value, and then formats the cell.

Before jumping into the code, let’s review some basics. Formatting code has special placeholders for date and time formatting that behave a bit differently. For example, while m and mm will show month as a number, mmm and mmmm will show as a text string. Below are some examples.

Here is the full list of options for the date 4/1/2018 23:59:31 ,

Come in Colors Everywhere

Number Formatting can be used color sections of a code. A common example is using the color red for negative numbers. Color code must be placed inside square brackets (i.e. [color]), and entered at the beginning of a section. Here are some available colors,

• [Black]
• [Blue]
• [Cyan]
• [Green]
• [Magenta]
• [Red]
• [White]
• [Yellow]

Conditions

Although Excel has conditional formatting menu, basic conditions can be applied through code. Condition should be placed inside square brackets (i.e. [condition]) just like colors. Conditions are similar to the conditions in some functions (i.e. SUMIF). First add a logical operator, and then a value. For example, “[>=1000000]” means “if value of cell is greater than or equal to 1,000,000 apply the following format”. Conditions should come before the actual code, again, just like with colors. If you want to a color as well, the color code should come first.

Another important thing to note here is, that section structure changes from Positive, Negative, Zero, Text to First Condition, Second Condition (if exists), if previous conditions are not applied. There should be at least two sections for conditions.

If you enter only one condition code and then save the format, Excel will automatically add the second section with «;General». This means that if the condition is not met, General format will be used.