Exponent in Excel .xls - How can I make the result typical scientific notation?

[hugom]

Hello,

I create my certificates of calibration trough Excel, and I don´t know how can I have for the results a typical scientific notation, for instance 1.23x103, instead of the 1.23E+03 notation.

Can anyone help me ?

Thanks in advance,
Kind Regards,
Hugo

 

[Tim Folkerts]

Most people who use Excel (and many other software packages) are familiar with the 1.23E+03 notation, so is it really a problem?

I don't know that there is any easy way to change the notation - at least not automatically. If you type the number yourself is is possible to set the notation to look more standard - you could even put the power of ten as a superscript. You could probably get clever with text functions and find a way to have Excel change the format, but I don't know if it is worth the effort.

Perhaps someone else has a better idea???

Tim F

 

[Jim Wynne]

Most people who use Excel (and many other software packages) are familiar with the 1.23E+03 notation, so is it really a problem?

I don't know that there is any easy way to change the notation - at least not automatically. If you type the number yourself is is possible to set the notation to look more standard - you could even put the power of ten as a superscript. You could probably get clever with text functions and find a way to have Excel change the format, but I don't know if it is worth the effort.

Perhaps someone else has a better idea???

Tim F

I would leave it alone; anyone who's capable of critically evaluating the number should understand scientific notation; the whole idea of scientific notation is to not have to bother with superscript exponents.

 

[hugom]

My problem is that I got a non-conformity in my last audit because of that.

Hugo

 

[Jim Wynne]

My problem is that I got a non-conformity in my last audit because of that.

Hugo

If you've described a quantity in a way that A) is understood by people who need to understand it and B) wouldn't change if it were expressed in some other form, then your auditor is wrong, unless there's more to this than meets the eye. What was the NC for? What "shall" was violated?

 

[Claes Gefvenberg]

unless there's more to this than meets the eye. What was the NC for? What "shall" was violated?

Indeed. Can you tell us more, Hugo?

/Claes

 

[FlavioLima]

Hello,

I create my certificates of calibration trough Excel, and I don´t know how can I have for the results a typical scientific notation, for instance 1.23x103, instead of the 1.23E+03 notation.

Can anyone help me ?

Thanks in advance,
Kind Regards,
Hugo

Sorry Hugo !!!!
There's no simple way to achieve this in EXCEL. Cientific notation uses X.XXE+xx.
Most bizarre part of your post is getting non-conformity in audit. I'm just curios about it:

Which objective evidence did he/she ask you? what's clause related ?

Best regards.

FL

 

[Justin]

First - There is no way of getting Excel to do what you ask without rewriting the actual code of the program.

Second - The scientific notation format is the same throughout the world. It is a nationally recognized mathematical representation of a number.

I agree that it is very bizarre (I love that word) that a nonconformance would be issued for this. I am now very curious to know what "shall" was violated by the use of standard scientific notation. Almost sounds to me like your procedure calls for the number to be in the format you described. If this is so, and thats what the nonconformance was for, then just change your procedure to show either method as acceptable. Just a thought.

Good Luck

 

[Winner]

My 2 cents

Hugo,

There is a way in Excel, but you will have to manually do it for each cell. I have no clue how many numbers you have with that kind of notation.

Its pretty trivial

for example you have 1230 for which scientific notation is 1.23 E +03

1. You write down 1.23 X 103
2. Select only the 3 on extreme right
3. Right click on it and chose Format cells
4. Click Superscript

Hope this helps,

Kumar

 

[Tim Folkerts]

There are several conventions for writing "scientific notation", depending mostly on what sort of typesetting is available. Consider the number 12,300

The standard Excel format is "1.23E+04".

• This is the way Excel outputs the number (if you ask for scientific notation).

• You can also type in numbers in this format - simply type "1.23E4" or "1.23E+04". If you want you may add "=" before the number.

Standard scientific notation would be "1.23 x 10[SUP]4[/SUP]", where the "4" should be a superscript. (I don't think the software for this forum supports superscripts).

• There is no way I know to have Excel convert to exactly this format.
• If you type the numbers by hand, you can have Excel put the number in this format - however Excel will not recognize this as the number 12,300.

An alternate format is "1.23 x 10^4", using "^" to indicate a superscript.

• With a little cleverness, I forced Excel to convert a number to this format. However the result would no longer be considered a number by Excel, and so no further mathematical operations could be performed.
• You can type numbers in this format - "=1.23*10^4" - and have it interpreted correctly by Excel as 12,300. (Note that you must use "*" rather than "x" for multiplication, and you must start with "=" or "+".)

IMHO, the second format (using superscripts) is the ideal. That is the way textbooks and technical papers express scientific notation. In a formal report using a word processor, that is how I would do it.

However, superscripts are a luxury that most technical software ignores. For standard reports generated directly from a spreadsheet, the Excel format seems perfectly clear and perfectly standard. Trying to retype or convert that standard formatting would just introduce the potential for more mistakes.


Tim F