This tutorial explains a step-by-step procedure to add plus sign (+) before any positive number in Excel.
When we do the calculation in Excel, sometimes we get the positive number and sometimes the negative.
We see the (-) negative sign before any negative number but do not find any (+) sign before any positive number.
Why does this happen?
As a result, Excel considers the (+) sign as redundant (not necessary) before any positive number.
Such as if we put ‘0’ before any number, Excel removes ‘0’ because not necessary.
This is because putting such things before numbers do not affect their value.
But suppose that if we want to add a (+) plus sign before any positive number, then how to do it.
Suppose that we have a dataset below.

The Change column shows the difference between 2020 and 2021 within this dataset.
Look at the values in the Change column. There are some positive and negative values.
In this case, a negative sign (+) appears before the negative number, but a plus sign (+) does not appear before any positive number.
So here we want to apply plus sign (+) before all positive numbers.
Note: – only change in the format and not affect the values
So here we are going to apply some custom formatting in the Change column.
After applying the custom format, we can see a plus sign (+) before all positive numbers.
Select all the number values in Change column.
Click the right-click from mouse and choose the Format Cells option after selecting the Change column.

The Format Cells dialogue box will appear. See the below image:-

The number format is selected as ‘General’ by default and in the right side box you can see that ‘General format cells have no specific number format’.
So here we need to change the format of the selected columns.
Select the ‘Custom’ option listed below in the ‘Category’ field on the Number tab.

Now remove the ‘General’ from the Type field and type some custom formats in this place.
Here we will enter the following formatting for our selected column numbers.
+0 = for positive number value
-0= for negative number value
0= for 0 number value
And we do not require text formatting as of no use here.
Enter these formatting in the Type field.

When you enter the custom formatting in the Type field and click Ok.
See that a plus sign (+) is applied before every positive number.

Excel allows us to apply a plus sign (+) before every positive number using custom formatting.
Add Plus Sign (+) with Country Code (91) Before Mobile Numbers
Here we have a customer care number list of some mobile service provider companies.
See the image below:-

These are the mobile numbers of some mobile service providers.
Note: – Mobile Number used in this post are the customer care number of the mobile service providers and does not belong to any individual.
Now we want to add (+91) as country code to all the mobile numbers.
So how to do this?
Here again, we will use the custom formatting to add plus (+) sign with country code (91) before all the mobile numbers.
First of all, select all mobile numbers, where we want to add (+91) before these numbers.
And press ‘CTRL + 1’ as a keyboard shortcut to open the ‘Format Cells’ dialogue box.
In the ‘Number’ tab, go to the last option listed in the ‘Category’ field.
And type (+91-0) in the format type field provided.
You can see this in the image below.

Once you enter the above formatting then click the ‘Ok’ button at the bottom.
And see that (+91- ) is added to all the mobile numbers.

We can use the custom formatting method to apply many formatting options.
If you want to learn more about this, please visit Microsoft Office Support.
I hope you find this tutorial useful.
Please feel free to put your comments or suggestion in the comment box below.
Thanks
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