In column A, I have the numbers 1-48, with leading zeros for the numbers under 10:


01
02
03...

47
48


In the second column, I have v3 or v2 randomly listed.

v2
v2
v3
v2
v3

etc

I want to make a new column that merges column A and B with an underscore:

01_v2
02_v2
03_v3

etc.

When I use " =A1&"_"&B1" I lose the leading zero, and end up with

1_v2
2_v2
3_v3

etc.

Is there anyway to maintain the leading zero across this formula? I tried changing the format of both the v2/v3 cells and the result cells to the same custom format I have for the numbers, but that doesn't work.

Thank you.
Emily

What about setting the format to Text?

I think that might work-- do you know if this will interfere with future LOOKUP functions? That is, the lookup function tends to be very picky about ascending order, and I wasn't sure if there would be problems converting some of my numbers to text.

yes you need to set to Text. Numeric values don't have leading zeros. And no, it wouldn't affect the lookups.