How do I Specify the Scientific Notation Power in Google Sheets?

Question

In Google Sheets when I enter

10E-12

in a cell formatted for scientific notation, it automatically turns the number into

1E-11

Though technically correct, this is really annoying when comparing numbers between cells. Is there a way to specify the power to which the number should be raised in Google Sheets?

Answer 1

To specify power of exponent, such as to powers of 3, 6, 9, etc, specify the number of places in the format.

e.g. ##0.00#E+##

Note that there are 3 places on the left of the decimal and 3 places on the right of the decimal.

The powers will increase or decrease by multiples of 3.

The exponential display can be formatted as you wish with 0 or #.

Answer 2

1. Select the cell(s)
2. Click on Format > Number > More formats > Custom number format...
3. On the box write something like #0.0E+00
4. Click Apply button

Note: The leading # is to set an optional digit

Reference

• Format numbers in a spreadsheet

Answer 3

1.79769E+308 is the maximum number that Google Sheets is able to output. Respectively -1.79769E+308 is the negative value. Anything higher than that will output into error or gets down-corrected by Google Sheets.

Raising on the power in Google Sheets is done with ^ symbol like:

=25^7

=999^99