Excel formula

Factual Questions
1

Using Excel 2000. I have a number in a cell that I want to be minus 3%. It is:

215,000,000-3% but I cannot get it to work. Can anyone here help me?

I am using =sum(215000000-3%)

2

How about =CELL * .97 (or 97% of the value)?

Or if you want to keep the 3% as a reference, =CELL - (CELL * .03).

3
  1. Is the number an actual sum (i.e. =sum(A1:A23))?
  2. Excel doesn’t use the “%” sign. Like dasgupta showed, you should just multiply it by .97: [number].97, or go with =[number]-[number].03
4

I did it with =SUM(E2-(E2*0.03))… Thanks for your help.

5

Actually, Excel can use “%” sign. I use it all the time in formulas to help readability.

For robcaro’s example, instead of…


=sum(215000000-3%)

…its…


=215000000*(100%-3%)
6

Again, you don’t need the “SUM” in there, because you’re not adding anything. It’ll work just fine as =E2-(E2*.03). Try it. You’ll get a lot more functionality out of Excel once you start understanding stuff like that.

7

Or more elegantly, =E2-(E2*3%)

8

=e2-(e2*.03)

9

Thanks so much for all the good information. Still learning I guess.

10

Eventually, you are going to want to use a different percentage. It’s always more convenient to put parameters in cells rather than hardcoding them into formulas. I suggest you put the value 3% in a cell (let’s say E3) and do this

=E2*(1-E3)

11

:confused: See post directly above mine.

ETA: robcaro, stop with the SUM - that’s generally only required for adding ranges of numbers and cells. It’s entirely unnecessary for simple functions like yours.