Export numbers to Excel - Format issue

[Ntinsky]

Hello everyone,

I 've been experimenting with various parameters and so fat no luck. I have a Powershell array in a script, which collects computer data such as Hostname Ipv4address,serial number and mac address

when i try to export data to Excel the ipv4 format shows as a whole number (eg 10.16.166.1 shows as 10161661)

I know this happens because of Excel default column data format set to General and the way it interprets numbers but i have no way to "pre" set the column format to Text before injecting the data to worksheet.

Same thing happens if i export to CSV and then import to Excel

So far the only solution that works is the single quote prefix method in the ip variable inside my script.

My data array looks like this

$results += [PSCustomObject]@{ IPAddress = "'$ipAddress" ComputerName = $computerName SerialNumber = $serialNumber MACAddress = $macAddress Status = "Success"

Is there any other way to export ipv4 values without losing the original format?