Changing negative numbers to positives..

  • Thread starter Thread starter Ela
  • Start date Start date
E

Ela

Hi,

I imported a column of numbers and most of them are negative (XXXXX)
How can I change them all to positives????? I know that formatting doe
not help as it only changes the appearance of the negative number.

How do I make all those numbers positives without retyping th
list/deleting the '-' sign??

Thanks!
Ela:confused
 
Hi
in a helper column (e.g. column B) enter in B1:
=ABS(A1)
and copy down. afterwards select this column, copy it and insert it
again with 'Edit - Paste Special - Values'
 
For a one time operation, the easiest way might be to use a formula in the
next column;

=ABS(A1)

this will return a positive number. You can then copy and paste
special>values over the original numbers

Another way would be to sort the data by the numbers, which would group the
positives and negatives separately. Then enter -1 in a blank cell, copy it,
highlight the negative values in your sorted range, go to edit>paste
special>multiply, and the negatives will be positives.
 
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