Importing data — How numbers are read (2)

Where a column holds a number that reads two ways, a note under it on the review step shows one of them and how it will be read, and a picker switches between Decimal point and Decimal comma. No note appears where the column’s own numbers settle it the way you write numbers yourself, which is most files. In a longer file the whole column is read when you import, and unless you chose in the note, a number further down that can only be read one way decides it. • Numbers in an Excel workbook are read from the cell rather than from how it is displayed. A cell that shows two decimals is imported with all of its digits, a twelve-digit order number is not shortened to 1.23457E+11, and there is no decimal mark to question. • A column of whole numbers padded with zeros, such as 01234, is imported as text, so postcodes and codes keep their zeros. Change the column’s type to Number on the review step if they are quantities. • A value that is not a number, such as TBC, is kept as written.