percentage question

[steve goodrich]

how do I work out percentages in excel 2003?

I have the price £134.00 in cell A1 and the price £157.00 in cell A2
what do I type in cell A3 that will tell me the increase as a percentage

Thanks

 

[Niek Otten]

=(A2-A1)/A1
Format as percentage

=============================================================
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 %
=============================================================



--
Kind regards,

Niek Otten
Microsoft MVP - Excel

| how do I work out percentages in excel 2003?
|
| I have the price £134.00 in cell A1 and the price £157.00 in cell A2
| what do I type in cell A3 that will tell me the increase as a percentage
|
| Thanks
|
|

 

[Bernard Liengme]

If A1 was old price, A2 new price then the increase was A2-A1 ( £23)
The ratio of change/old price is =(A2-A1)/A1 (23/134 = 0.171642....)
A percentage is nothing more than this ratio multiplied by 100 (17.16 )
but with calculators/computer all we need to is push the % key - or in
Excel, format as Percent.
to get 17.16%

We say the price has risen by 17%.
Note that =(A2-A1)/A2 gives 14.65%. The item was 14% cheaper then compared
to now.

The ( ) are need to make Excel subtract before it divides - the thing it
wants to do first!
best wishes

 

[Tyro]

How would you figure out the percentage increase on paper? When you figure
that out, you can use the same method in Excel.

Tyro

 

[steve goodrich]

thanks guys

 

[*alan*]

You may want to take advantage of Excel's predilection for dividing before
subtracting; instead of entering =(A2-A1)/A1 in A3, you could enter a
(slightly) simpler formula: =A2/A1-1 (format A3 as percentage).

Since you'll undoubtedly be wanting to make more than one comparison, it may
be more useful to arrange your data differently, i.e.:
Column A: old price
Column B: new price
Column C: percentage increase
In which case, format the entire Column C as percentage and enter in C1:
B1/A1-1