Excel sheet phone numbers importing as Scientific notation, e+xx

[DaveBo]

When I import spreadsheets from Excel into Access that contain telephone numbers they sometimes come through as Scientific notation or as a resolved equation.
e.g. 123-456-7890 might come through as a negative number because it preforms the 2 subtractions.

or, it might look like "123.456e+011"

Sometimes converting the column in Excel as Numeric with 0 decimal places helps. I tried setting the sheet to display formulas, looks good but still has problems after I import to Access.

Any ideas on this?
Thanks, DaveBo

[si_the_geek]

The problem is that telephone numbers (and social security numbers, etc), are not actually numbers - they are text, which happens to contain numbers.

Whenever possible (such as in cell formatting, or when importing) you should treat them as Text.

[RobDog888]

Or format the column with the appropriate formatting. Use NumberForm if you are doing it by code otherwise its selecting your range and right clicking and selecting Format Cells....

[Lord Orwell]

and in the future, contain the "-" in the cells in the format, and not in the text.