InfoPath Dev

 I have tried creating lists by importing both from an excel spreadsheet and also from an xml file.  The problem I'm having is when the data is imported, SharePoint is formating field with leading zeros (like zip code) as regular numbers, so that value 01769 shows up as 1,769.  I have specifically gone in and edited the data in the spreadsheet but that is ignored.  Do I need to do something special or can I change the data format in the datasheet view in Sharepoint?

I found out how to change the basic data type from number to text, however, the leading zeroes are still being truncated.  Is it possible to set up custom data types or set up input masks for a column?

You need to keep numeric datatype only, just make sure that the values of characters after decimal should be zero. If that approach wont work, create a calculated column whose value should take only integer values. Let me know if you face some problem....