If you’re wondering what does #### mean in Excel, read this Microsoft Excel guide until the end, and learn all the ways Excel uses the pound or number sign.

Microsoft Excel mostly uses the pound or number sign with error values. However, there are other thoughtful ways to use this symbol, such as a visual indicator that the cell size is too narrow, a digit placeholder, a spill range reference, and so on.

By the end of the guide, you’ll get a clear idea about all the ways Excel uses the number symbol and how to fix the visuals so the final dataset doesn’t look unpleasant to a general audience.

What Does #### Mean in Excel?

Excel uses a series of hash/pound/number signs (#), mostly 5 in a series, as a visual indicator to show something isn’t according to the visual or formatting guide of Excel. In general, here are the common meanings of pound signs in a series of 5:

##### Error

In Excel, ##### appears when a column is too narrow to display the full content of a cell. This typically happens with long numbers, dates, or time values.

Custom Number Formats

In custom number formats, # acts as a placeholder for optional digits. For example, ### will display up to three significant digits without leading zeros. It helps format numbers flexibly in a simple way.

Spill Range Operator

When using dynamic array formulas, you can add an # after a cell reference (e.g., A1#) to refer to the entire spill range of the formula in the cell A1. This ensures you’re including all related values. It’s especially useful for referencing dynamic results that auto-expand.

How to Correct a #### Error

Now, here are some tips and tricks to resolve a ##### error in your Excel worksheet:

By Making Columns Wider

The most common reason Excel shows ##### in a cell or a range of cells is the lack of space to display the full content.

This error is often seen in full dates containing the day, date, year, and time. Sometimes, you may see a series of pound characters if the output of a formula, like a number, time, or date is too large to be shown in the destination cell.

To fix this, you must extend the cell to the right. To do so, hover the cursor over the edge of the column letter, like column B.

The cursor will change into a crosshair. Click on the right side edge of the grid line and extend the right side cell border until you can clearly see all of the cell contents.

Alternatively, you can double-click on the edge of the column to automatically extend the cell size to fit the whole content.

Sometimes, you can’t increase the cell size to make all the content visible. In that case, you can shrink the font size of the data to fit the text or numbers within the cell. Then, even without extending the cell border to the right edge, you can get rid of the series of # signs.

Select the cell or cell range for which you need to shrink the font size.

Press Ctrl + 1 to bring up the Format Cells dialog box.

Navigate to the Alignment tab.

Checkmark the checkbox for the Shrink to fit option in the Text control section.

Click OK to apply the changes you’ve made.

Excel will automatically reduce the font size to show the entire cell contents.

By Decreasing Decimal Places

If there are pound characters in your dataset and you know that the cells with the series of # symbols contain numbers, it’s likely that there are multiple decimal places.

For example, in the dataset shown above, the Price column contains the cost of products in numeric values. Since there are many decimal places after the numeric value exceeding the size of the cells, Excel is showing a series of # characters.

Select the cell source cell or cell range and click on the Decrease Decimal button to reduce the number of decimal places. You can find this command in the Number block of the Home tab.

Click on the Decrease Decimal button multiple times until the pound signs disappear.

Using the Short Date Formatting

If the #### values show up on your dataset because of full date entries and you can’t increase the cell size, you can use the Short Date format to convert the long date to MM/DD/YYYY format. Doing this will remove the pound signs because Excel can now show all the cell contents.

To use this method, select the cell or cell range that shows the pound error.

Click on the Date drop-down menu in the Number block of the Home tab.

Select the Short Date option from the context menu that shows up.

You should now see the actual date entries instead of a series of # values.

By Fixing Negative Dates or Times

You often come across datasets containing time or date values produced by certain formulas, like subtracting time or date entries in Excel.

If the output date or time of the formulas in question is negative, Excel will show a series of # entries instead of the negative date or time values. So, to remove the # errors, you must fix the formula so that the output is never a negative value.

For example, the sample dataset shown above shows a series of # entries for all the calculated values in column D.

In the above data table, I’ve tried to subtract the values in the Anniversary and Date of Birth columns using the simple subtract sign.

If you wish to get rid of the pound signs in such a situation, change the number formatting of the cell or cell ranges from the Short Date option to General.

Excel will show the negative date entries now.

Alternatively, you can fix the subtraction formula, by using C2-B2 in the dataset that I’ve shown above.

Then, you must apply the General number formatting else Excel will show a date value in MM/DD/YYYY format instead of the remaining days.

Switch to the 1904 Date System

Excel uses two date systems, namely the 1900 and the 1904 date systems. The 1900 date system is set as the default setting, where January 1, 1900, is considered as the day 1, January 2, 1900, as the day 2, and so on. Contrarily, in the 1904 date system, January 1, 1904, is considered the first day for all calculations, and there’s a 4 years difference between the two date systems. In all Windows PCs, Excel by default sets itself to the 1900 date system whereas the Excel for Mac app uses the 1904 date system by default.

So, if a dataset created on a Mac shows the pound symbols when opened on a Windows PC, you must switch the Excel app to the 1904 date system.

To do this, press Alt + F + T to bring up the Excel Options dialog box.

Click on the Advanced option in the left-side navigation panel.

Scroll down on the right side until you find the When calculating this workbook section.

Checkmark the checkbox for the Use 1904 date system.

Now, the series of # entries will disappear automatically.

Using the TEXT Function

The #### error only shows when you’re handling number values, like numbers with many decimal places, dates, and times. You won’t see this error when working with text strings.

So, you can simply convert the number outputs to text output for any formula to get rid of the pound symbols in cells or cell ranges. The best way to do this is by wrapping the original formula into a combination of TEXT and ABS functions.

For example, in the above dataset, I’ve subtracted dates between B2 and C2 and the resultant values are negative dates so Excel shows the pound symbols.

However, you can simply use the TEXT and ABS functions as shown below to convert the negative date value into text strings.

=TEXT(ABS(B2-C2),"0") 

However, you can’t use the output of this formula for other calculations since the results are in the text format.

Conclusions

By now, you should have figured out what the #### symbols mean in Excel, especially when working with numbers, dates, and times. You’ve also learned the various ways to get rid of the pound or number symbol errors in Excel.

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