Excel, change column of negative numbers to positive numbers?

[Nita]

If I need to quickly change an entire column (800 rows) of negative numbers
to positive numbers, what is the easiest way. I tried the paste special
multiply by -1, but it didn't work, I'm probably doing it wrong.

 

[JMB]

If your data is in A1:A10 and -1 is in B1, then copy B1, select A1:A10 and
click edit/paste special/multiply.

 

[Gord Dibben]

If the copy and paste special>multiply did not work, perhaps your numbers are
not "numbers" but text.

In an adjacent colukmn enter =ISNUMBER(cellref) and copy down a few rows.

Do you get TRUE or FALSE?


Gord Dibben MS Excel MVP

 

[JMB]

I tried the copy/paste special on text values already, but the copy/paste
special worked for me. Even when the text values were the result of formula,
excel added *-1 to the end thereby coercing the text values to numeric.