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Now if only Microsoft would put some of their recognizer smarts into Excel so that ZIP codes like "02201" don't get converted into "2,201".

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You already can do that. Albeit it doesn’t detect it as a zip code specifically, but you can format the cells so that values that look like numbers aren’t automatically converted into numbers.

Excel does have its quirks (CSV handling is one of my pet peeves) but it does also have a surprising amount of sophisticated adjustable logic that is often hidden in plain sight.

Definitely. I wish there was a global/permanent setting to not strip leading zeros. I imagine the design decision might have been made decades ago for Lotus 1-2-3 compatibility or something, but it's almost certainly cost much more time and mistakes than it has saved.

This might be the setting you're looking for? https://www.howtogeek.com/816620/microsoft-is-finally-fixing...

That would break the business logic of millions of small businesses globally who rely on write-only excel spreadsheets to encode their business logic.

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