How to Remove Leading or Trailing Zeros in Excel

This wikiHow teaches you how to remove zeros from the beginning (Leading) or end (Trailing) of numbers in Excel.

Method 1
Method 1 of 2:

Removing Leading Zeros

  1. Image titled Remove Leading or Trailing Zeros in Excel Step 1
    1
    Highlight the cells with leading zeros. If you’re working with numbers in a column, you can highlight the whole column by clicking the column letter.
  2. Image titled Remove Leading or Trailing Zeros in Excel Step 2
    2
    Right-click the highlighted cells. If your computer doesn’t have a right mouse button, press Ctrl as you click with the left. A menu will appear.
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  3. Image titled Remove Leading or Trailing Zeros in Excel Step 3
    3
    Click Format Cells. The Format Cells dialog will appear.
  4. Image titled Remove Leading or Trailing Zeros in Excel Step 4
    4
    Select Number from the left column.
  5. Image titled Remove Leading or Trailing Zeros in Excel Step 5
    5
    Type a “0” (zero) into the “Decimal Places” box.
  6. Image titled Remove Leading or Trailing Zeros in Excel Step 6
    6
    Click OK. It’s at the bottom-right corner of the screen. This brings you back to your spreadsheet, where you should no longer see zeros before your numbers.
    • If you still see leading zeros, double-click the cells, then press ↵ Enter or ⏎ Return.
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Method 2
Method 2 of 2:

Removing Trailing Zeros

  1. Image titled Remove Leading or Trailing Zeros in Excel Step 7
    1
    Highlight the cells with trailing zeros. If you’re working with numbers in a column, you can highlight the whole column by clicking the column letter.
  2. Image titled Remove Leading or Trailing Zeros in Excel Step 8
    2
    Right-click the highlighted cells. If your computer doesn’t have a right mouse button, press Ctrl as you click with the left. A menu will appear.
  3. Image titled Remove Leading or Trailing Zeros in Excel Step 9
    3
    Click Format Cells. The Format Cells dialog will appear.
  4. Image titled Remove Leading or Trailing Zeros in Excel Step 10
    4
    Select Custom from the left column.
  5. Image titled Remove Leading or Trailing Zeros in Excel Step 11
    5
    Type a code into the box under “Type.” If any text is in the box, delete it now. Then, type 0.### into the box.
  6. Image titled Remove Leading or Trailing Zeros in Excel Step 12
    6
    Click OK. You will no longer see extraneous zeros at the ends of your numbers.
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About This Article

Nicole Levine, MFA
Written by:
Nicole Levine, MFA
wikiHow Technology Writer
This article was co-authored by wikiHow staff writer, Nicole Levine, MFA. Nicole Levine is a Technology Writer and Editor for wikiHow. She has more than 20 years of experience creating technical documentation and leading support teams at major web hosting and software companies. Nicole also holds an MFA in Creative Writing from Portland State University and teaches composition, fiction-writing, and zine-making at various institutions. This article has been viewed 70,318 times.
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Co-authors: 1
Updated: September 26, 2022
Views: 70,318
Categories: Microsoft Excel
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