Excel, change column of negative numbers to positive numbers?
 

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.

Excel, change column of negative numbers to positive numbers?
 

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


"Nita" wrote:

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.

Excel, change column of negative numbers to positive numbers?
 

If the copy and paste specialmultiply 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

On Mon, 26 Nov 2007 18:12:01 -0800, Nita wrote:

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.

Excel, change column of negative numbers to positive numbers?
 

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.

"Gord Dibben" wrote:

If the copy and paste specialmultiply 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

On Mon, 26 Nov 2007 18:12:01 -0800, Nita wrote:

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.