Zeros disapearing in front of numbers when exporting from attribute table

Question

I have a large set of points in ArcMap desktop. In the attribute table I have a column called ID, where each point have an individual number. Some of these numbers starts with a double-zero, which is fine in the attribute table. However, when I export the attribute table into excel, the zeros in the beginning of the numbers are lost.

I'm doing a simple mark in ArcMap and the chose "copy selected" before I paste it in Excel. Is there a better way of doing this so that I can keep my zeros? Or do I need to solve this matter in Excel, and do you have any suggestions on how to?

• ahmadhanb: In order to add zeros at the left side of the number, the field should be defined as text, you cannot add zeros to the ID number if the field type is integer or Double or any numeric format. It seems that the ID field in ArcMap is defined as text (string) and when you select that value and paste it in Excel it was converted to digits (numbers) automatically. You can change that in Excel, please have a look at this site: exceljet.net/formula/pad-a-number-with-zeros

Answer 1

I do not work in Arcmap, so I do not know what you use for "export", but when you are reading the export file in excel it recognizes that column as a number and not as a text which is what you want.

Assuming you are producing a text file, in order to read the data as text type in excel, you need to select the right data type in the 3rd step of the text import wizard.

Select Text for your column.

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