can I remove negative symbols without a formula

P

PMLACC

I have negative #'s that I want to make positive with a format rather than a
formula. Is there any way to do this?
 
B

Bob Umlas

Negative numbers DISPLAYED as positive numbers are still negative numbers!
Apply a format such as General;General
So if you SEE
3
3 and add them, if the first is "really" -3, the sum will still be 0.
 
M

Marcelo

Hi,

bob is right, but if you need to change negative to positive,

copy the range and paste special values and subtracting

or use an auxiliar cell, type -1 copy it and paste special values and multiply

hth
--
regards from Brazil
Thanks in advance for your feedback.
Marcelo



"PMLACC" escreveu:
 
G

Gord Dibben

Not by formatting but.............

Enter -1 in a cell.

Copy it.

Select your range of negative numbers and Paste Special>Multipley>OK>Esc


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP
 
T

T Kirtley

If your only concern is to display negative numbers as positive, this can be
done by creating a custom number format. But I would agree with the previous
posts and caution against doing this for any sheets that will involve
calculation, or will be used by anyone unfamilar with the custom formating.
It can be very difficult to debug a spreadsheet if the data you see is not
the same as the values that are stored, as it is usually not clear to other
users (or even to yourself after a few months have passed) when custom
formats are in use.

/* ending soapbox mode*/

The following custom format would show both positive and negative numbers
without and signs (and zeros as a dash):

#,##0;#,##0;"-";@

As another example, the following format would show positive values as
negative and vice versa, with 'Accounting' format style aligned parentheses:

(* #,##0);_(* #,##0_);_(* "-"_);_(@_)

To use these, just select a number format type of 'Custom' in the Format
Cells dialog box, and paste the format definintion into the 'Type' box.
Custom formats can give you great flexibility in the way data is shown, but
it is up to you to make sure they are used appropriately.

Good luck

TK
 
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