# In Excel, is there a way to change the numbering of the rows?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-excel-is-there-a-way-to-change-the-numbering-of-the-rows/305320>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [May 24, 2005, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-excel-is-there-a-way-to-change-the-numbering-of-the-rows/305320 "2005-05-24T20:06:24Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Cagey\_Drifter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@Cagey\_Drifter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cagey_Drifter)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2005, 8:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-excel-is-there-a-way-to-change-the-numbering-of-the-rows/305320/1 "2005-05-24T20:06:24Z")

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Normally as you go down, the rows go 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc. But I want the rows to say 0145, 0146, 0147, etc… how do I do that?

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**Author:** ![Fat\_Chance](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8baadc/32.png) [@Fat\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fat_Chance)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2005, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-excel-is-there-a-way-to-change-the-numbering-of-the-rows/305320/2 "2005-05-24T20:29:35Z")

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Just make column A your number lables, going down, in whatever format you want.

Don’t worry about the built-in row numbers, which you can’t change.

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**Author:** ![Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de053/32.png) [@Jackknifed\_Juggernaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackknifed_Juggernaut)\
**Post date:** [May 24, 2005, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/in-excel-is-there-a-way-to-change-the-numbering-of-the-rows/305320/3 "2005-05-24T20:47:10Z")

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Also, if you want the row to be labeled “0145”, you have to designate the cell as being text. This is done by putting a single quote in front of it. For example, if you want cell A1 to be called 0145, you’d type in '0145.