Question

I’m having an issue when exporting values (using VBA code, not via an export to CSV) from an Excel spreadsheet to a text file.

Using these numbers:

     -            (formatted so 0 displays as "-")
    0.10000000 
    0.0166666666666667 

If I debug.print the .Text then .Value property of each cell, the results are:
    -           --> 0
    0.10000000  --> 0.1
    0.01666667  --> 1.66666666666667E-02 

My issue is, I want to avoid the 0.0166666666666667 (in the spreadsheet cell visually) –> 1.66666666666667E-02 (in the cell’s .Value property) conversion to happen.

If I read the .Text property instead, the result comes out as a decimal as desired, but the problem then is that the 0 formatted as “-” is exported as “-“.

Is there a “proper” way to handle this that will work in all scenarios?
I have to use the final solution across multiple spreadsheets, and I have no control over the display format settings in each spreadsheet, or the contents of each cell (ie: not guaranteed to be numeric data)

Example Code

Public Function test()
    Dim cell As Range: Set cell = Worksheets("Sheet1").Range("A1")
    Dim i As Integer

    Dim vSingle As Single
    Dim vVariant As Variant
    Dim vDouble As Double

    For i = 0 To 4
        vSingle = cell.Offset(i, 0).Value
        vVariant = cell.Offset(i, 0).Value
        vDouble = cell.Offset(i, 0).Value
        Debug.Print cell.Offset(i, 0).Text & " --> " & cell.Offset(i, 0).Value & " : " & vSingle & " : " & vVariant & " : " & vDouble
    Next
End Function

Results in:

                                          -  --> 0 : 0 : 0 : 0
0.10000000  --> 0.1 : 0.1 : 0.1 : 0.1
0.01666667  --> 1.66666666666667E-02 : 1.666667E-02 : 1.66666666666667E-02 : 1.66666666666667E-02
 -->  : 0 :  : 0
 -->  : 0 :  : 0

Answer 1

I can’t replicate your issue, but perhaps you can use the following code to help. Basically, you can check if it’s numeric, then store it into a strong-typed variable, and then export that. You can use something like this:

Dim num As Double

Do
    If (IsNumeric(Selection.Value)) Then
        num = Selection.Value
        ' Export num
    Else
        ' Export Selection.Value
    End If
Loop Until True