Add formatting rules so that zeros show as blanks (but are still 0)

Add formatting rules so that zeros show as blanks (but are still 0) see Barry's email 12-27-20 5:26PM Re: Automating the Christmas Bird Count article

John,

The way to get zeroes to show as blanks is to make a custom format that looks like “0;0;” (this means format with no decimals for postive and negative numbers and format as nothing for zeroes).

1) Select the columns with numbers that you want formatted this way 2) In the “Home” toolbar, click on the formatting popup. It looks like this on my machine: PastedGraphic-10.png 3) From the popup, choose “More Number Formats…” 4) Click “Custom” and under “Type:” type “0;0;” ==> Voila! The zeroes disappear. They’re still there, just invisible (you’ll see them if you copy and paste, for example)

The custom formats are pretty powerful, and reminiscent of regular expressions. For example, they have this one: ($* #,##0);($* (#,##0);($* "-");(@_)

Not sure what it means! Like regexes, I know just enough to be dangerous!

Barry

jhurley13 / automatingcbc

Add formatting rules so that zeros show as blanks (but are still 0) #16