Unfortunately, Excel doesn’t have a SUBTRACT formula. You need to subtract the prior month’s sales from the current month’s sales. Your boss asks you to add a row that shows the change from the prior month. You'll find your answer next to SUM.You have created a report that shows your company’s sales by month. Now look at the bottom of the screen at the status bar. So again, if you wanted to subtract 227 from 444, you would type 444 into one cell and type -227 into the cell next to 444. Just type your numbers into their own individual cells and turn one of them into a negative number. You can also just use Excel's status bar (located at the bottom of your screen) to your advantage. You don't always have to enter in a formula to subtract numbers in Excel. The correct answer should immediately replace the formula you typed in. So in our example, since we want to subtract 227 from 444 the formula can look like this:

Note: It doesn't matter which number is the negative one, but one of them has to be for the subtraction to occur. Then type in the following (entering in your own numbers): While Excel doesn't have a separate subtract function, you can still use the SUM function to subtract numbers. The correct answer to this subtraction problem should automatically appear in place of the formula you just typed in.įor our example, since A5 equals 444 and A6 equals 227, the answer that appeared was 217. In our example, that would look like: =A5-A6 Step 2: Click on a blank cell in your spreadsheet and type in the following formula, omitting the spaces and brackets and filling in your numbers' cell references where appropriate: For example, if one of your numbers is in a cell that is located in column A and row 6, the cell reference for that number would be A6.) (A cell reference is a way to denote the location of a given cell in a spreadsheet and the combination of a cell's column number and row number. Step 1: Choose the numbers you want to subtract and make note of their respective cell references. If you have numbers located in different cells in your spreadsheet that you want to subtract, you can do so by using cell references and a formula. How to deactivate your Instagram account (or delete it)Ĭommon Windows 11 problems and how to fix them

Excel formula for subtracting