To make zeros appear as dashes (–) in Excel without changing the actual cell values, you can use a custom number format. This method preserves the numeric nature of the data while displaying zeros as dashes for cleaner presentation.

How to Display Zero as Dash Using Custom Number Format

1. Select the cells or range where you want zeros to show as dashes.

2. Press Ctrl + 1 to open the Format Cells dialog box.

3. Go to the Number tab and select Custom.

4. In the Type field, enter a custom format code like this:

   #,##0;-#,##0;-
   

Explanation of the format code parts:

 * `#,##0` — format for positive numbers with thousands separator.
 * `-#,##0` — format for negative numbers with thousands separator and minus sign.
 * `-` — display a dash instead of zero.

5. Click OK.

Now, all zeros in the selected cells will display as dashes, while positive and negative numbers show normally

Important Notes

• This method only changes the display, not the actual value in the cell. Zeros remain numeric, so functions like COUNT still count them correctly.
• Avoid manually replacing zeros with dashes as text, since that converts numbers to text and can cause calculation errors

• If you want to customize decimal places or currency symbols, you can adjust the positive and negative parts of the format accordingly.

This approach is widely recommended for a professional and clean look in Excel reports and dashboards