Ok, how do I subtract a percent from a number?

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Level 1

35 points

Ok, how do I subtract a percent from a number?

In Excel, this is easy. But numbers isn't doing it.

I want to take a number, say 2400, and subtract 6.9% from it without 1st using an additional cell to find out what 6.9% of 2400 is.

In excel, you just use: =2400-6.9%

But in numbers, this is giving a result of 2399.94

I know it's simple? Anyone know why Numbers handles percentages differently?

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Posted on Sep 16, 2009 7:34 PM

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Answer 1

Sep 16, 2009 7:42 PM in response to Jeremy Riga

Jeremy

Do the obvious:

=2400*(100-6.9)/100

or however else you want to phrase it.

Peter

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Answer 2

Badunit

Level 7

25,544 points

Sep 16, 2009 7:46 PM in response to Jeremy Riga

Your formula is giving the correct answer, just not the answer to the question you are asking.

2400 - 6.9%*2400 = the result you want

also stated as

2400*(1-6.9%) = the result you want

EDIT: I saw Peter's post after I posted mine. Note that the 6.9 in his formula is not 6.9%, it is 6.9 (which is 100 times greater than 6.9%).

Message was edited by: Badunit

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Answer 3

Jeremy Riga Author

Level 1

35 points

Sep 16, 2009 7:45 PM in response to PeterBreis0807

Sorry, in my frustration I didn't specify that the percentage comes from it's own cell that is variable, and so is the number (in the example this was 2400).

So the actual formula is:
A1-A2

In excel, that formula outputs the correct number without division by 100...

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Answer 4

Badunit

Level 7

25,544 points

Sep 16, 2009 7:52 PM in response to Jeremy Riga

A1*(1-A2)

You might want to check what you did in Excel because the formula you provided (A1-A2 where A1=2400 and A2=6.9%) results in the same answer as Numbers; which isn't the answer you are looking for.

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Answer 5

Jeremy Riga Author

Level 1

35 points

Sep 16, 2009 7:50 PM in response to Badunit

So : =A1*(1-A2)

Yep - that's giving the correct number. Thank you. Wonder why Excel handles it differently?

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Answer 6

Badunit

Level 7

25,544 points

Sep 16, 2009 7:55 PM in response to Jeremy Riga

I added to my last post. Excel returns the same answer as Numbers with your original equation, as it should. 6.9% is the same as 0.069 . So, 2400-0.069=2399.931

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Answer 7

Sep 16, 2009 8:02 PM in response to Badunit

Badunit

My formula did correctly express the 6.9 as 100ths.

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Answer 8

Badunit

Level 7

25,544 points

Sep 16, 2009 8:46 PM in response to PeterBreis0807

I did not mean to imply your formula was incorrect, only that the "6.9" in your formula was not "6.9%". I wanted to ensure Jeremy didn't interpret it as 2400*(100-6.9%)/100 .

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Answer 9

Sep 16, 2009 9:08 PM in response to Badunit

Sorry, I misunderstood. 🙂

Peter

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