Simple question

[gtharwood]

I'm relatively new to Excel and I want to creat a sheet for my
expenses where I can enter a number in one column and have it
subtracted from the above cell in the next column and so on, all the
way down. I can do this by clicking on the bottom left of the cell and
dragging it down but would like it to appear automatically.

Sorry if that's not very clear.

John

 

[Gary''s Student]

In B1 enter the inital balance
In A2 and on down enter your expenses

In B2 enter:
=IF(A2="","",B1-A2) and copy on down

 

[John]

In B1 enter the inital balance
In A2 and on down enter your expenses

In B2 enter:
=IF(A2="","",B1-A2) and copy on down

Many thanks for the solution.

John

 

[DB.]

"Gary''s Student" replied:

In B1 enter the initial balance
In A2 and on down enter your expenses

In B2 enter:
=IF(A2="","",B1-A2) and copy on down

I, too, am unfamiliar with Excel.

This =IF(A2="","",B1-A2) and copy on down appears unduly complex.
It seems I get the same results if I simply put =(B1-A2) into B2 and
copy *that* down.
What's the significance (and meaning of) the IF(A2="","" bits, please?

I'm sure your solution is to be preferred rather than mine - but why?

TIA

 

[Red]

The "" means blank. =IF(A2="",""

In this case, if cell A2 is blank, it says leave the spot where the if
statement resides blank (in your example, B2). In your scenario if A1 were
blank you would get !Value or some other error message. The "" in the IF
statement above makes the worksheet cleaner by making the error messages not
show up. It's all about esthetics.

Hope this helps.