 |
 | Home | Contact Us | FAQ | Search & Site Map | Link to Us |
 | Sign In | Join | Other 45 Sites in Network |
| HomeDiscussionsAccessExcelInfoPathOutlookPowerPointPublisherWordDirectoryUser Groups Related Topics Outlook ExpressInternet ExplorerWindowsMS Server ProductsMore Topics ... |
MS Office Forum / Excel / New Users / October 2007percentages
I am new to excel and I am trying to find out how to do percentages. One of my questions is find out 25% of 196 and I am just drawing a blank! Hi =196*25% or with 196 in cell A1 and 25% entered in cell B1 =A1*B1  SignatureRegards Roger Govier >I am new to excel and I am trying to find out how to do percentages. One >of > my questions is find out 25% of 196 and I am just drawing a blank! There are a few ways and it may become more understandable to you if you consider this. Dividing any number by 100 gives 1% of that number so in your case 196/100*25 = 25% of 196 to make this into an excel formula put an = sign in front =196/100*25 Mike > I am new to excel and I am trying to find out how to do percentages. One of > my questions is find out 25% of 196 and I am just drawing a blank! Hi Mike, My standard answer: ============================================================= About percentages in Excel Niek Otten, July 26 2006 In Excel, percentages are stored as fractions; 15% is stored as 0.15, 100% as 1. That makes it easy to calculate with; just multiply a number with a percentage and you get what you need. No need to divide/multiply by 100. In fact, if you see a calculation with percentages which has the number 100 somewhere in the formula; be very careful, it might be wrong or at least use percentages in a way they weren't meant to be used in Excel. The conversion to a fraction happens automatically if you enter the % sign: if you enter "15%" (without the quotes) the value will be 0.15 and it will be displayed as 15%. If you then enter 12 in the same cell, two things can happen: It will be the number 12 or 12%. What happens in your case depends on a setting: Tools>Options, Edit tab, "Enable automatic percent entry" (only Excel2000 and newer). All built-in functions of Excel and all the functions in Analysis Toolpak use this representation of percentages: be careful when supplying parameters to these functions; never use whole numbers (like 8), always use fractions (like 0.08 or, even better, 8%). Frequently Asked Questions: Q: I have A1 and B1. How do I get C1 to show B1 as a percentage of A1? A: Formula in C1: =B1/A1, Format as % Q: I have A1 and B1. How do I show the difference as a percentage in C1? A: As a percentage of A1: =(B1-A1)/A1, Format as % As a percentage of B1: =(B1-A1)/B1, Format as % -- Kind regards, Niek Otten Microsoft MVP - Excel ============================================================= | There are a few ways and it may become more understandable to you if you | consider this. Dividing any number by 100 gives 1% of that number so in your [quoted text clipped - 10 lines] | > I am new to excel and I am trying to find out how to do percentages. One of | > my questions is find out 25% of 196 and I am just drawing a blank! Niek, In Excel I would do percentage calulations as you describe but only because modern tools such as Excel have made me lazy. I learnt these calculations in the days before spreadsheets and calculators when multiplyng a number by 25% using pencil and paper simply made (and still makes) no sense hence my qualified answer to the OP that there are several methods. In my humble view it is much better that someone inderstands how a percentage is arrived at then have them accept that =mynumber*25% will work it out for you. Regards, Mike H > Hi Mike, > [quoted text clipped - 51 lines] > | > I am new to excel and I am trying to find out how to do percentages. One of > | > my questions is find out 25% of 196 and I am just drawing a blank! I second Mike's comments and take it a little further. Personally I think that the percentage keys in Excel or in calculators should not exist. As Mike says, they are handy little tools for someone who understands percentages, however, for someone who doesn't understand them they are just a disaster waiting to happen. I wish I had one cent for everytime an error has been created by misuse of the percentage function! Get rid of it and teach people how percentages work, they are not a difficult concept to get a handle on. Regards Martin > Niek, > [quoted text clipped - 83 lines] >> One of >> | > my questions is find out 25% of 196 and I am just drawing a blank! Should the * symbol be removed and should we teach users how to do repetitive addition? :-) SignatureKind regards, Niek Otten Microsoft MVP - Excel |I second Mike's comments and take it a little further. | Personally I think that the percentage keys in Excel or in [quoted text clipped - 98 lines] | >> One of | >> | > my questions is find out 25% of 196 and I am just drawing a blank! Niek, Where we are; particulary in the UK in my view, is that children are leaving school unable to manually perform even the simplest calculations without the use of a calculator or spreadsheets and in part I believe this is due to the use of and over reliance on those tools. What we are trying to calculate is; once again in my view, irrelevant, what matters is that the person learning the method understands how the calculation is preformed and that we don't produce a generation that thinks =Stdev(a1:a100) is how standards deviations are worked out. Not intended to be argumentative just an honestly held opinion:) Mike > Should the * symbol be removed and should we teach users how to do repetitive addition? :-) > [quoted text clipped - 100 lines] > | >> One of > | >> | > my questions is find out 25% of 196 and I am just drawing a blank! Did you try =25%*196? Or if you have 25% in A1 and 196 in B1, try =A1*B1. SignatureDavid Biddulph >I am new to excel and I am trying to find out how to do percentages. One >of > my questions is find out 25% of 196 and I am just drawing a blank!
|
Reply to this Message |
 Sign In
 Join
 My Latest Posts My Monitored Threads My Blog My Photo Gallery My Profile My Homepage Start New Thread Enable EMail Alerts Rate this Thread
|
©2008 Advenet LLC Privacy Policy - Terms of Use
This website includes both content owned or controlled by Advenet as well as content owned or controlled by third parties.