Format Phone Numbers With Dashes in Excel & Google Sheets

This tutorial demonstrates how to format phone numbers with dashes in Excel and Google Sheets.

 

 

Format Phone Numbers

Say you have a set of numbers and want to format them as phone numbers (see A2:A5 below). This formatting could include dashes, parentheses, and/or spaces.

 

 

1. First, select the numbers you want to format (A2:A5), and right-click the selection. From the drop-down menu, choose Format Cells.

 

 

2. In the Format Cells window, (1) click on the Number tab and from the menu (2) choose Custom. To format numbers in the Type box (3) enter the format you want. (4) Press OK.
   This example uses the format (###)###-####, but you could also use something else, like ###-###-####.

 

 

As a result, the values are formatted as phone numbers.

 

 

Phone Numbers With Country Code

If your phone numbers are all for the same country, you can display the country code without editing the values.

 

 

1. Select the list of numbers and right-click it. From the drop-down menu choose Format Cells.

 

 

2. In the Format Cells window, (1) click on Number and in the menu (2) choose Custom. Then, (3) type the format with country code – +1 (###) ###-#### – and when done, (4) press OK.

 

 

As a result, the numbers are formatted with the country code, parentheses, and dashes.

 

 

Foreign Phone Number Format

This method works for any country, as long as all numbers in the range are in that country. Just use the applicable country code and standard formatting for that country. Just modify the Type: box text from Step 2 above.

The example below appends country code 381 to phone numbers formatted as (##)###-##-##.

 

 

As a result, the number is formatted as a foreign phone number.

 

 

Format Phone Numbers in Google Sheets

1. To format numbers as phone numbers with dashes in Google Sheets, first select the list of numbers you want to format. Then, in the Menu click Format > Number > More Formats > Custom number formats.

 

2. In the Custom number formats window, enter the format you want, then click Apply.

 

 

As a result, the list of numbers is formatted.