Each cell in Excel has a format which is divided into four Sections

from left to right:

• Positive numbers
• Negative Numbers
• Zero Values
• Text values

... each separated by a semi colon (;).

To create a custom number format it is not necessary to specify all four sections, e.g. if you included only two sections, the first section would be used for both positive numbers and zero values, while the second section would be used for negative numbers. Since Text uses the last section it is only affected by custom formats when we use all four sections. Whatever the format of the cell is, its value remains intact.

Download attached Excel file to see other formatting codes as well.