Expressions such as『2011年11月1日』, "11-2", "11/3", and "6e23" which you type anticipating as simple strings, are inevitably treated as special values as a result of DATE-Function, TIME-Function, or Exponential style. Excel always recognizes "6e23" as 6 × 1023 (Avogadro's number) regardless of user's intention.
① Insert a meaningless space at a head of the string. But it is of no use in case of exponential value.
② Select "String" in cell-format option prior to type-in, or otherwise the setting is in vain.
③ At the start of typing begin with "apostrophe" ( ’ ), for instance 『 '6e23 』.
As mentioned above, Excel recognizes "1/2" as a date-function. "XX YY/ZZ" is the defined form, where XX, YY, and ZZ are an integer, a numerator, and a denominator, respectively.
For instance, 6 7/8 (expression in cell) shows 6.675 in numerical expression.
"0 1/2" gives a value of 0.5.