Excel Square Root Function

Excel Square Root Function (Table of Contents)

• Square Root in Excel
• Where is Square Root function found in Excel?
• How to Use the Square Root Function in Excel?

Square Root in Excel

When a given number multiplied by itself, it provides a number as a result. This resultant number is called the square root of a given number.

Excel provides an in-built function for calculating the square root of a number. This function falls under Math & Trigonometry functions category.

Definition

It is a built-in function and it can be used as a Worksheet function in Excel. It can be used as part of a formula in a cell of a worksheet.

Below is the Square Root Formula:

The Square Root formula has one argument:

• Number: It is the number for which you want to calculate the square root. This number should be a positive number.

Where is Square Root function found in Excel?

As we discussed in the above section, this function falls under the Math & Trig functions category, thus for this function follow the below steps:

• Click on Formulas tab.
• Click on Math & Trig option under Function Library section. Refer below screenshot.

• It will open a drop-down list of functions and we have to select the SQRT Function as shown in below screenshot.

• After clicking on this, it will open a Function Arguments dialog box as shown in below screenshot.

• Enter the value for which you want to calculate the square root under Number field.

How to Use the Square Root Function in Excel?

It is very simple and easy to use. Let’s understand the working of Square Root function by some Square Root Formula example.

Example #1

We have given the below list of numbers.

Now apply the formula for the above-given number as below:

The Result will be as below:

Drag this formula for the rest values and the result is shown below:

Example #2

The supplied number in the function should be positive. If the given number is negative, the SQRT function returns an error #NUM! value.

Still, if you want to calculate the square root of a negative number, then first you need to convert that given number to a positive value, then you can apply the formula.

Suppose the below-given list of numbers:

We will first use the ABS function which returns the absolute number of a number and converts the negative number to a positive value. The ABS function ignores the sign of the given number.

Now apply the function as below:

The Result will be as below:

Drag & drop this function for the rest values and the result is shown below:

Example #3

If we apply the SQRT function to a negative number, it shows an error value.

Suppose we have to calculate the square root of number -100.

We will apply the function here as follows:

The result is shown below:

Things to Remember Here

• #NUM! – This error occurs when the supplied argument of the SQRT function is a negative value.
• The SQRT function can be used with multiple functions like ABS, ROUND, etc. depends on the result you want.
• There is no way to square a number and the result is of a negative number, hence the square root of a negative number doesn’t exist.

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