When we capture a South African ID Number, Excel recognizes it as numeric and displays it to the right of the cell. Up until recently this has not been an issue, but as Generation-Z, or more specifically those born between 2000 and 2009, start creeping into our Databases it has now become a problem.
For Example: A Generation-Z ID of 0105145027085, when entered in Excel converts to a Number and displays as 105145027085! Excel hijacks the leading zero, just like it does with phone Numbers.
To Fix this we need to start storing our ID numbers as Text, and to do that we either need to prefix each ID Number with an apostrophe (‘) or better still, pre-format your ID Number column as Text.
To become more proficient with the use of numbers, data ranges and databases, check out one of our online Excel courses, with training offered for both beginners to advanced users.
