Converting Negative Number to Postive number

[Guest]

How do I convert a negative number to a positive number? (without editing
every cell)

 

[Pete]

Use a formula in an adjacent cell and copy this down. If your data is
in A1, in B1 enter:

=ABS(A1)

and copy down for as many values as you have in column A. You can then
fix the values in B and copy them over the ones in A.

Hope this helps.

Pete

 

[praveen_khm]

Hey Tedd,
One possibility for that is you can do CTRL+H, replace, in find what,
use "-" and then replace with a blank in 'replace with'. This is
possible but it replaces all the negative numbers. Hence, you can use
this if you need to replace all in the worksheet.
Cheers.

 

[Guest]

Do you just want to convert negative->positive (leaving positive numbers
positive)? If so, use the following formula:
=ABS(A1)

Drag this down to the end of your data. Then, copy this range and "Paste
Special"->Values over your original range.

If not, (you want to convert positive numbers to negative as well). Place
-1 in an empty cell and copy it. Then select your range of numbers and
"Paste Special"->Multiply.

Does that help?

 

[Guest]

I have a column of #s whose values are linked to a different worksheet. Some
#s are positive, others have a negative sign. I tried to search for the
negative symbol using the search/replace method you describe, but my search
both by "formulas" and by "values" does not find anything--yet I can see
several cells have negative numbers in them. Any thoughts?

 

[Guest]

Additional Item: The column that includes negative signs is formatted as a
Custom column with 13 zeros...I need to have leading zeroes and 13 places
total. In this format, the Find features does not seem to find the negative
signs.

Thanks again.

 

[This is exactly what I was looking for.]

Use a formula in an adjacent cell and copy this down. If your data is
in A1, in B1 enter:

=ABS(A1)

and copy down for as many values as you have in column A. You can then
fix the values in B and copy them over the ones in A.

Hope this helps.

Pete

 

[Pete_UK]

Well, that shows the value of the archives - one of my early
postings !!

Glad it was useful to you.

Pete