Create ordinal number format in Excel

Anonymous
2010-08-09T14:55:38+00:00

Hello,

I am wondering if anyone knows (or knows of any resources that describe) how to create an ordinal number format in MS Excel.

I am well aware of how to reformat numbers as text to create the ordinal number effect, but what I would like to do is have the numberdisplay as an ordinal number (e.g., "1st", "2nd", "3rd", etc.) while still retaining its numeric value (1, 2, 3, etc.).

The reason for this request is to be able to perform numeric functions (e.g., MIN, MAX, AVERAGE, etc.) on an array of ordinal numbers.

I have a spreadsheet that lists various athletes' scores and the ranking for each score.  I would like to be able to easily determine, for example, each athlete's best ranking by using a MIN() function on the list of ordinal numbers.  Currently the only way I can think to do this is by having the rankings as regular cardinal numbers.

I suppose it would be possible to have an adjacent, hidden column with the numeric value of each ranking, but I thought it might be more elegant if there was a way to change the format of the number without changing its value.

Any help is much appreciated!

Regards,

Craig

Microsoft 365 and Office | Excel | For home | Windows

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  1. Anonymous
    2011-02-28T02:09:23+00:00

    Rick:

    Very interesting.

    It took me a while go to thru the formula and map its logic.

    It can probably form the basis of a worksheet formula to give a string result rather than a format.

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  2. Anonymous
    2011-02-27T22:35:51+00:00

    Originally I was going to respond to Adam Vero (the last poster before you) noting that his response comes some 6 months after the previous last posting in this thread, but then noticed that you just posted a macro in response. Given that, I thought I would direct your attention to the event code I posted to this thread back in August 2010... I thought you might find my one-liner number formatter of some interest.

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  3. Anonymous
    2011-02-27T22:11:55+00:00

    Select your values and try this little macro:

    Sub ordination(r As Range)

    Dim s As String

    s = ""

    dq = Chr(34)

    ar = Array("th", "st", "nd", "rd", "th", "th", "th", "th", "th", "th")

    With r

        .ClearFormats

        v = .Value

        If v > 10 And v < 20 Then

            s = "th"

        Else

            s = ar(v Mod 10)

        End If

        .NumberFormat = "General" & dq & s & dq

    End With

    End Sub

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  4. Anonymous
    2010-08-09T16:07:02+00:00

    Nuculerman,

    Can you provide a little more detail to your solution?  I think it is on the right track of what I want to accomplish, but not sure.

    Ideally, the cell would be formatted directly.

    So if 2 is entered in the cell, either directly or as the result of a formula, it would appear as "2nd," but would still be treated by other formulas as 2.

    Thank you,

    Craig

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  5. Anonymous
    2010-08-09T15:42:05+00:00

    You can pretty easily write a macro

    Dim m as Range, myRange as Range

    For Each m in myRange

    m.NumberFormat = "0""th"""

    m.NumberFormat = "0""rd"""

    m.NumberFormat = "0""nd"""

    m.NumberFormat = "0""st"""

    Next

    With conditionals for each option.  Everything from 4 through 20 would be "th", and everything after that would follow the same pattern as 0 through 10.  So it'd be five cases or if statements.

    Alternatively you can do it within the worksheet_change sub.

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