Yes, of course, you're right. It's been a long week. :-)
--
David Biddulph

"Pete_UK" wrote in message
...
I think David meant to put:

=C1/ABS(B1)

Pete

On Nov 30, 6:50 pm, "David Biddulph" <groups [at] biddulph.org.uk
wrote:
Your problem is in trying to work out a percentage in this situation. If
your forecast was that you'd break even, then you'll be quoting an
infinite
percentage whether you achieve a profit of £1 or £1 million.

If you merely want to ensure that the sign of your percentage is the same
as
the sign of your change, then you could use =C1/ABC(B1), but it's a fairly
meaningless quantity.
--
David Biddulph

"wtrbb" wrote in message

...





Actual Forecast absolute change % change
5,733 (2,600) 8,383.00 (322.4%)
=(a-b) =c/b

as you can see, i am getting a negative return for the % change, when
its
actually a positive - we did better than forecasted - my signage should
match
the signage of the number in column c

--
wtrbb

"Niek Otten" wrote:

Please give examples of your data, your formulas, what you require as
results and what you get instead

--
Kind regards,

Niek Otten
Microsoft MVP - Excel

"wtrbb" wrote in message
...
| mmm - if it were only that simple! sometimes the variance is
negative,
though
| - i'm running into the problem with the formulas that are computing
negatives
| to negatives and pos/neg (where the variance should be a positive
one,
but
| returns a negative value instead)
|
| (b4-c4)/c4
| --
| wtrbb
|
|
| "Pete_UK" wrote:
|
| Why not put ABS( ... ) around the formula you currently have, so it
| will always show a positive value?
|
| Hope this helps.
|
| Pete
|
| On Nov 30, 3:37 pm, wtrbb wrote:
| Hi
|
| am trying to calculate variances in a spreadsheet and am running
across a
| problem with the formula returning the wrong value for the cell,
for instance
| returning a negative variance when in fact it is a positive
variance. i'v
| added another hidden column with the absolute value and would
like
a formula
| that would show the same value (positive or negative) for the
percentage as
| what is displayed in that adjacent cell - any ideas?
| --
| wtrbb
|
| - Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -