Doesn’t Look Like a Fraction!

Go to a blank cell in a worksheet. Enter the fraction 3/4. Hey! Wait a minute! I didn’t say March 4^th …. I entered three quarters. Simple… I’ll just format the cell as a number or fraction (Format Menu/Cells) the result is 39145. Where did my fraction go?

Here’s the answer. Excel automatically interprets your cell as a “date” entry. 39145 is the serial number for March 4, 2007. This example was done in 2007… another year, a different serial number…we’ll talk about date functions in another tip.

What about displaying my fraction? Here’s the Trick! Go to a blank cell. Enter 0 space 3/4 (read as zero space 3 forward slash 4). Voila! Your cell now shows your fraction and it has that fraction’s mathematical value. Multiply that cell by 4 and the answer will be 3 and not 156580 (39145 x 4).