adding cells with positive and negitive nos.

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George Sibley - 15 Oct 2006 10:52 GMT

Not being an experienced user of Excel, I have a problem thats drivin
me crazy. I have built a budget sheet which shows total spending fo
the month. The next cell shows the expected spending for the month.
The third cell will show the difference between the other two. Th
problem is that the expected spending might be a negative number an
the total spending shows a positive number but I can't get th
difference cell to show the correct amount.

ie. a3 $22.00 a4 -$20.00 a5 $42.00

Formula is =a3-a4. Can someone help

--
George Sibley

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Jim Cone - 15 Oct 2006 13:58 GMT

George,
What is the "correct" answer?

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Jim Cone
San Francisco, USA
http://www.realezsites.com/bus/primitivesoftware

"George Sibley"
<George.Sibley.2fpysg@news.excelbanter.com>
wrote in message
Not being an experienced user of Excel, I have a problem thats driving
me crazy. I have built a budget sheet which shows total spending for
the month. The next cell shows the expected spending for the month.
The third cell will show the difference between the other two. The
problem is that the expected spending might be a negative number and
the total spending shows a positive number but I can't get the
difference cell to show the correct amount.
ie. a3 $22.00 a4 -$20.00 a5 $42.00
Formula is =a3-a4. Can someone help.
--
George Sibley

Reply to this Message

Paul Mathews - 15 Oct 2006 15:38 GMT

George, are you saying that the expected spending amount may be either
positive or negative but should be treated as if it were only positive. So,
for example if a3 = 100 and a4 = 25 that would yield a5 = 75. But, if a4 =
-25, a5 would still be 75?

If that's the behaviour you want then set a5 = a3-ABS(a4)

> Not being an experienced user of Excel, I have a problem thats driving
> me crazy. I have built a budget sheet which shows total spending for
[quoted text clipped - 7 lines]
>
> Formula is =a3-a4. Can someone help.

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