EDUCBA Logo

EDUCBA

MENUMENU
  • Explore
    • EDUCBA Pro
    • PRO Bundles
    • Featured Skills
    • New & Trending
    • Fresh Entries
    • Finance
    • Data Science
    • Programming and Dev
    • Excel
    • Marketing
    • HR
    • PDP
    • VFX and Design
    • Project Management
    • Exam Prep
    • All Courses
  • Blog
  • Enterprise
  • Free Courses
  • Log in
  • Sign Up
Home Excel Excel Resources Excel Tips Negative Numbers in Excel
 

Negative Numbers in Excel

Madhuri Thakur
Article byMadhuri Thakur

Updated June 7, 2023

Negative Numbers in Excel main image

 

 

Excel Negative Numbers (Table of Contents)

Watch our Demo Courses and Videos

Valuation, Hadoop, Excel, Mobile Apps, Web Development & many more.

  • Introduction to Negative Numbers in Excel
  • Examples of Negative Numbers in Excel

Introduction to Negative Numbers in Excel

Negative numbers are the ones that are lower than zero, and by default, they have a minus symbol as a prefix in Excel. These numbers are with your sales, margin, scores, and financial data occasionally, and you have to deal with those with care. Though it is quite easy and simple in Excel to deal with negative numbers, it may sometimes create confusion for the user due to the different visibility of the same under Excel. Especially a new user might have confused while working on those. But remember a simple rule: any number with a minus sign as a prefix is a negative number. There are various ways of representing/highlighting negative numbers in Excel.

Examples of Negative Numbers in Excel

Let’s understand how to use Negative Numbers in Excel with some Examples.

You can download this Negative Numbers Excel Template here – Negative Numbers Excel Template

Example #1 – Negative Numbers with Conditional Formatting

In representing negative numbers, we check whether the number in cells is less than zero. If the number is less than zero, it will be colored with a specific color. Suppose we have data, as shown below, consisting of positive and negative numbers.

Negative Numbers in Excel 1-1

To highlight the negative numbers, follow the steps below:

Step 1: Select all the cells containing your data. See the screenshot below for your reference:

Negative Numbers in Excel 1-2

Step 2: Click the Home tab button on the Excel ribbon; you can see a Conditional Formatting dropdown under the Styles group.

Negative Numbers in Excel 1-2

Step 3: Now, click on the Conditional Formatting dropdown, and you can see a list of options below. Navigate toward the Highlight Cell Rules, and there you can see the Less Than… rule. Click on it.

Negative Numbers in Excel 1-3

Step 4: A new dialog box, Less Than, opens up. In that box, Put the value as zero (0) within the box under Format cells that are Less Than and select appropriate cells and text color through the dropdown menu on the right.

Negative Numbers in Excel 1-4

Click the OK button, and you can see the result below. Where all the negative numbers are colored Red and cells are colored light red.

Negative Numbers in Excel 1-5

Example #2 – Negative numbers with Built-in Number Formatting

Now we will see how to represent the negative numbers with the built-in number formatting in Excel.

Step 1: Select all the data from your cells as shown below:

negative no-2

Step 2: Navigate to the Home tab under the Excel ribbon and click on the small arrow type icon, which is there to enlarge the number formatting under the Number group. See the screenshot below:

Built-in Number Formatting 2-2

A new window will pop up named Format Cells. Here you can format the cells and customize the cell’s formatting as per your requirements.

Built-in Number Formatting 2-3

Step 3: By default, the Number tab gets highlighted inside the Format Cells window out of all six tabs. You need to click on it to select it if it is not. Under the Number tab, select Category: as Number.

Built-in Number Formatting 2-4

Step 4: Once you click on the Number option, on the right-hand side, under the Format Cells window, you can see a sample of the formatting. Reduce the Decimal Places: to zero (0) from 2 and Select the last numbering sample with a negative sign with it and the text color as red under Negative Numbers. Click the OK button once done.

negative number 3

You can see the negative numbers are colored with text color as red. See the screenshot below:

negative no-2-1

Example #3 – Custom Number Formatting

We can use custom number formatting to represent the negative numbers. Follow the steps below for a better understanding:

Step 1: Select all the cells you want to format under Excel.

Custom Number Formatting 3-1

Step 2: Open the Format Cells dialogue box by clicking the icon for number formatting. It comes from the Number group present under the Home tab.

Custom Number Formatting 3-2

Step 3: Under the Format Cells window, select the Number tab (if it is not determined by default). Under Category, this time, instead of going for Number, go for Custom; we wanted our custom formatting for the negative numbers.

Custom Number Formatting 3-3

Step 4: Now, on the right-hand side, under the Type: section, type the following to make the negative numbers visible as bracketed in red text.

Custom Number Formatting 3-4

Step 5: Click the OK button, and you can see the negative numbers under parentheses as well as with the text color red. See the screenshot below:

Custom Number Formatting 3-5

This is how we can represent negative numbers in Excel so that your data read nicely and simply.

Example #4 – Convert the Negative Numbers into Positive

It becomes extremely important in some cases where you need to convert the negative values into positive ones. Follow the steps below to convert negative numbers into positives. Suppose we have a set of negative numbers as shown below:

Negative numbers into Positive 4-1

We have a function in Excel named ABS, which can convert negative numbers into positives. We will use the same for conversion.

Step 1: In cell B2, initiate the ABS function by typing =ABS(

Negative numbers into Positive 4-2

Step 2: Now, use the reference as A2 inside this function. A2 contains the value which we wanted to convert into a positive number.

Negative numbers into Positive 4-3

Step 3: Close the parentheses to complete the formula and press Enter key to see the result. The number is converted into a positive number, as shown in the screenshot below under cell B2.

Negative numbers into Positive 4-4

Step 4: Drag the formula across the remaining cells under column B, and you can see the negatives converted into positives.

Negative numbers into Positive 4-5

This is how we can deal with the negative numbers under Excel. Let’s wrap things up with some points to be remembered:

Things to Remember

  • While using Conditional Formatting to represent the negative numbers, you need to be very cautious as it is volatile in nature, and any change in numbers will cause it to reassess the condition and apply the formatting again.
  • While applying custom formatting, you can also add different colors to the text. Not all colors are available for text formatting. The ones which can be used are primary colors such as Black, Red, Blue, yellow, green, etc.

Recommended Articles

This has been a guide to Negative Numbers in Excel. We discuss Using Negative Numbers in Excel, practical examples, and a downloadable Excel template. You can also go through our other suggested articles –

  1. ISNUMBER Excel Function
  2. Convert Numbers to Text in Excel
  3. Excel Format Phone Numbers
  4. Excel Week Numbers

Primary Sidebar

Footer

Follow us!
  • EDUCBA FacebookEDUCBA TwitterEDUCBA LinkedINEDUCBA Instagram
  • EDUCBA YoutubeEDUCBA CourseraEDUCBA Udemy
APPS
EDUCBA Android AppEDUCBA iOS App
Blog
  • Blog
  • Free Tutorials
  • About us
  • Contact us
  • Log in
Courses
  • Enterprise Solutions
  • Free Courses
  • Explore Programs
  • All Courses
  • All in One Bundles
  • Sign up
Email
  • [email protected]

ISO 10004:2018 & ISO 9001:2015 Certified

© 2025 - EDUCBA. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. THE CERTIFICATION NAMES ARE THE TRADEMARKS OF THEIR RESPECTIVE OWNERS.

EDUCBA

*Please provide your correct email id. Login details for this Free course will be emailed to you
Loading . . .
Quiz
Question:

Answer:

Quiz Result
Total QuestionsCorrect AnswersWrong AnswersPercentage

Explore 1000+ varieties of Mock tests View more

EDUCBA

*Please provide your correct email id. Login details for this Free course will be emailed to you
EDUCBA
Free Excel Course

Excel functions, formula, charts, formatting creating excel dashboard & others

By continuing above step, you agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
*Please provide your correct email id. Login details for this Free course will be emailed to you
EDUCBA

*Please provide your correct email id. Login details for this Free course will be emailed to you

EDUCBA

Download Negative Numbers Excel Template

EDUCBA Login

Forgot Password?

EDUCBA

Download Negative Numbers Excel Template

EDUCBA

डाउनलोड Negative Numbers Excel Template

🚀 Limited Time Offer! - 🎁 ENROLL NOW