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Tranforming ZIP Codes To Five Digits From Nine

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Q. My company’s mailing list, which is in Excel, has thousands of names and addresses, and many of these contacts contain a nine-digit ZIP code. My manager wants to convert those with a nine-digit code to a five-digit code. Short of going through the list manually and cutting off those last four numbers, is there a fast and easy way to do that?

A. Yes, there is. Here are the steps:

If the ZIP codes are in column D, create a new column just to the right, in column E.

Enter this formula in E1: =Left(D3, 5) and then copy it into all the rest of the cells in column E.

vHighlight the entire column D and copy it (Ctrl+C) into the Clipboard .

n Go to the Edit menu and click on Paste Special and select the Values radio button and click on OK . Delete column D; by doing that, column E, with the now shortened codes, becomes column D.