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MS Office Forum / Excel / New Users / April 2007

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i can't figure out how to calculate percentages in excel

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Laserbeak43 - 19 Apr 2007 19:12 GMT
hI
I can't seem to get excel to show my the right numbers in percent format
i'm dividing a cell of 3000 by a cell of 342 and i get 8.771929825. if i try
to switch this to percentages i get 877%.

what am i doing wrong?
JE McGimpsey - 19 Apr 2007 19:30 GMT
Nothing. 8.77 *IS* 877%, just as 1.00 is the same as 100%.

What are you expecting?

> hI
> I can't seem to get excel to show my the right numbers in percent format
> i'm dividing a cell of 3000 by a cell of 342 and i get 8.771929825. if i try
> to switch this to percentages i get 877%.
>
> what am i doing wrong?
Sandy Mann - 19 Apr 2007 19:33 GMT
That is because 1 is 100%  divide you answer by 100 and format as
percentage.

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HTH

Sandy
In Perth, the ancient capital of Scotland
and the crowning place of kings

sandymann2@mailinator.com
Replace@mailinator.com with @tiscali.co.uk

> hI
> I can't seem to get excel to show my the right numbers in percent format
[quoted text clipped - 3 lines]
>
> what am i doing wrong?
Laserbeak43 - 19 Apr 2007 19:50 GMT
My formula was wrong. i was supposed to divide 342 by 3000 to get the correct
answer. (I think) either way i've figured it out thanks

> That is because 1 is 100%  divide you answer by 100 and format as
> percentage.
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> >
> > what am i doing wrong?
Niek Otten - 19 Apr 2007 20:39 GMT
=============================================================
     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 %
     =============================================================

Signature

Kind regards,

Niek Otten
Microsoft MVP - Excel

| hI
| I can't seem to get excel to show my the right numbers in percent format
| i'm dividing a cell of 3000 by a cell of 342 and i get 8.771929825. if i try
| to switch this to percentages i get 877%.
|
| what am i doing wrong?

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