How to Stop Excel From Changing Your Fractions

Score processing tips in Excel tables: Avoid date, simplification, and text conversion

Excel is good at handling numbers, but its processing of fractions can sometimes be unexpected. To avoid Excel automatically converting scores to dates, simplifying scores, or treating them as text, here are some practical tips.

Prevent scores from being mistaken for dates

Excel will convert fractions similar to "month/day" format to date by default. For example, entering "1/2" into an unformatted cell may turn into "January 2". This is because Excel often processes dates, so it automatically "helps" for format conversion.

There are two ways to avoid this:

1. Add "0" before the score: For example, to display "2/3", enter "0 2/3" and press Enter.

This method not only retains the fraction format, but also automatically changes the cell's numeric format from "General" to "Score" to facilitate subsequent calculations and operations. The formula bar also displays decimal values.

2. Manually formatting of cell: It is recommended to set the cell format to "Score" even if the entered score is not mistaken for a date. Select the cell you want to set, in the "Number" group on the "Start" tab, expand the drop-down menu, and select "Score".

Note: Change format to "Score" is invalid if the cell already contains a date. The format must be changed before entering the value .

Prevent scores from being automatically simplified

Excel will automatically simplify scores by default. For example, if you enter "4/6", it may become "2/3". To prevent automatic simplification, you need to specify a denominator.

1. Custom number format: Select the cell and click the Number Format dialog launcher in the "Start" tab "Number" group.

2. Select "Custom": Select "Custom" in the menu on the left.

3. Enter a custom format code: In the text box on the right, clear the existing text and enter "?/?" where "?" represents the molecule and "/" represents the separator. To fix the denominator, for example, fixed to 6, enter "?/6". Click OK.

Excel now keeps the entered fraction format as the specified denominator.

To convert false scores (for example, 15/7) to scores (2 1/7), the custom format code is "# ?/?" (a space must be left between "#" and "?". To lock the denominator, specify it in a custom format (for example "# ?/7").

Avoid converting scores to text (and why shouldn't it be)

Add a single quote (') before the score, and the score can be processed as text. However, this way the score will not be used for formulas, calculations, and other Excel operations.

Summary

Excel provides a variety of digital formats (currency, time, scientific notation, etc.). Flexible use of these formats can ensure that Excel reads data accurately. Proficient in mastering the above skills can efficiently process scores in Excel tables and avoid unnecessary mistakes.

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