excel for mac use parenthesis for negative numbers

Former Lifewire writer Ted French is a Microsoft Certified Professional who teaches and writes about spreadsheets and spreadsheet programs.

The VALUE function in Excel is used to convert numbers that have been entered as text data into numeric values so that the data may be used in calculations.

Excel automatically converts problem data of this sort to numbers, so the VALUE function is not required.

When this situation occurs, certain functions, such as SUM or AVERAGE, ignore the data in these cells and calculation errors occur.

For example, in row 5 in the image above, the SUM function is used to total the data in rows 3 and 4 in columns A and B with these results.

The SUM function in cell A5 ignores this data and returns a result of zero.

In cells B3 and B4, the VALUE function converts the data in A3 and A4 into numbers.

In the example, the data in A3 and A4 align on the left side of the cell because it was entered as text.

In cells B2 and B3, the data was converted to numerical data using the VALUE function and aligns on the right.

A functions syntax refers to the layout of the function and includes the functions name, brackets, and arguments.

A cell reference to the location of the text data in the worksheet.

If the data entered as the Text argument cannot be interpreted as a number, Excel returns the VALUE error as shown in row 9 of the example.

Listed below are the steps used to enter the VALUE function B3 in the example above using the functions dialog box.

Alternatively, the complete function VALUE(B3) can be typed manually into the worksheet cell.

Select VALUE in the list to bring up the functions dialog box.

Select OK to complete the function and return to the worksheet.

It is aligned on the right side of the cell to indicate it is now a value that can be used in calculations.

Select cell E1 to display the complete function VALUE(B3) in the formula bar above the worksheet.

Although dates and times are stored as numbers in Excel and there is no need to convert them before using them in calculations, changing the datas format can make it easier to understand the result.

Excel stores dates and times as sequential numbers or serial numbers.

Partial days are entered as fractions of a day such as 0.5 for half a day (12 hours) as shown in row 8 above.

Excel For Mac Use Parenthesis For Negative Numbers