Try this - In excel, highlight the column to be formatted, then click 
format.  Select cells.  Then under the number tab pick custom.
Off to the right, in the type area, highlight custom and type in  as 
many 0 (zeros) as you need  - in your case, 16.  Click ok.  That will 
provide a 16 digit zero filled number field.   If you enter 12345, you 
will get 000000012345 as the value displayed. 
.CSV format is 'comma separated variable', in generally truncates 
blanks.   I think you will retain the zeros in this case.  This also 
works for social security numbers and zip codes where the leading digit 
might be a zero.
Paul Hachmeyer

Brad wrote:

>Is there a way to define fixed length cells within excel?  For
>
>example, I have a check# field that can be up to 16 bytes long.  We
>
>plan to convert the excel document to a .csv file and upload it to the
>
>mainframe for processing.  In this example, I need 16 positions
>
>between the commas, padding unentered positions with spaces.  Hope
>
>that makes sense.
>
> 
>
>This is for a friend on another list that I use.
>
> 
>
>Much thanks!
>
> 
>
>Brad Loomis
>
>San Miguel, CA
>
>
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