Excel 2010 - how to prepend a "0" to make an 8 digit number 9 digits
2 ways of looking at this:
1) You simply want to see the number displaying 9 digits. In this case:
Go to Format Cells > Custom. Under Type, input "000000000" where there used to be "General" to set minimum number of digits displayed = 9
2) You need to verify with the first 4 digits:
To convert the number to a string, use the TEXT() Function:
Value = 2
TEXT(Value, "00") = 02
To completely solve your question, simply obtain the first four digits by
=(LEFT(TEXT(Value, "000000000"),4)
Good luck.