title: Excel interop adding slashes in my number formatting string
body: <p>I'm trying to set a number format (South African Rand currency, no decimals) to a range like so:</p>
  
  <pre><code>range.NumberFormat = "_ R * # ##0_;";
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>where <code>range</code> is of type <code>Microsoft.Office.Interop.Excel.Range</code></p>
  
  <p>however when I open the spreadsheet and check the formatting string by choosing custom format the string now looks like this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>_ \R * #\ ##0_;
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>and these added slashes means that only the first thousand separator (a space) is present and the rest are left off.</p>
  
  <p>I've also tried this:</p>
  
  <pre><code>range.NumberFormat = @"_ R * # ##0_;";
  </code></pre>
  
  <p>I tried MSDN but this paricular doc reads like gibberish to me: <a href="http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.office.interop.excel.range.numberformat.aspx" rel="nofollow">http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/microsoft.office.interop.excel.range.numberformat.aspx</a></p>
  
  <p>but it does the same thing. Anyone know how to prevent this from happening?</p>