help with spreadsheet

[CL]

How do I do a spreadsheet where A1 minus A2 is shown in B2 and then be be
able to subtract A3 from A2 and show it in B3? The pattern will continue as
such. It is a fitness program my wife is working on and I'd like to be able
to simplfy it for her.
A1 is starting weight,
A2 is week #2 weight,
B2 is the difference,
A3 is week#3 weight,
B3 is the difference of A2 and A3, etc

The spreadsheet will have 7 input values per week and be used weekly for a
year. If I entered each formula individually I would need to do so over 350
times, which I'd prefer not doing.
I've done spreadsheets before using the fill feature but only for rows or
columns, not for a combo of the 2.
Thanks in advance!!!
Ken

 

[Pete_UK]

The formula in B2 should be:

=IF(A2="","",A1-A2)

Then you can just copy this down as far as you need it - it will
return a blank if the cell in column A on that row is also blank.

However, this will only measure the week-on-week changes, which (given
that we are all only human) could increase as well as decrease. You
might like to have this formula in, say, C2:

=IF(A2="","",A$1-A2)

and as you copy this down the A$1 term will remain the same, so that
you will be comparing the weight at any particular point with the
starting weight, so it will measure the weight loss from the beginning
of the exercise - this may well be positive, whereas the week-on-week
measure may be negative.

You might also like to insert a new column A (the formulae will
automatically adjust), so that you can record the date the measurement
was made.

Hope this helps.

Pete