I think your basic misunderstanding is that the way a number is
formatted has nothing to do with the VALUE that is stored in the cell.

Since the values in column B are POSITIVE numbers (even if they're
formatted as negatives), use:

= -B1 + A2 + B2

or

= A2 - B1 + B2



In article ,
pierre wrote:

hello

given:

A B
1 -1000
2 2000 -500

in cells B1 and B2 , i have made previously :
format cells----custom----- -0.00

so here, i just entered 1000 and 500 ...and i got them as negative numbers.

MY ISSUE is that i am trying to do :
=B1+A2-B2 in order to get 1500....but i am having instead of it : -2500

what to do?????