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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 %
Q:
In A1 I have he end price.
In B1 I have the VAT percentage, entered like 15%
What is the formula to find the base price, excluding VAT?
A:
=A1/(1+A2)
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Kind regards,
Niek Otten
Microsoft MVP - Excel
lisa said:
Hi
i am working out the total income of a contract minus the total costs to
show the contracts profit or loss.
how do i do this as a percentage]
ie: total income £19,213.68
total costs £10,274.11
Profit / (loss) £8,939.57
any help would be appreciated
Lisa
