Show Positive or Negative Change Between 2 Cells in Numbers

I do not suggest pre-pending the "+" sign before numeric values as they will ne be available in later calculations. you can use conditional formatting to highlight positive and negative trends:

select the cells with the difference, then open the cell formatter:

Click the button "Conditional Highlighting…"

Add two rules:

- one for Greater than zero (select the built-in green highlighting)

- one for Less than zero (select the built-in red highlighting)

In Numbers the positive sign is implied when there is no sign and the negative sign is always shown for negative numbers

If you must see the plus sign, then you could do something like this:

column A contains the "result" of the difference between two values. Column B contains the formula:

B1=IF(A1>0, "+", "")&A1

this is shorthand for... select cell B1, then type (or copy and paste from here) the formula:

=IF(A1>0, "+", "")&A1

To fill down

select cell B1, copy

select cells B1 thru the end of column B, paste

for your specific situation...

B3=IF(A3>A2, "+", "")&(A3−A2)

select cell B3, copy

select cells B3 thru the end of column B, paste

I should caution you that forcing the plus sign before positive number can interfere with math calculations if the contents of column B is later used in a formula

you can, instead, use conditional formatting to highlight positive an negative trends like this:

select the cells in column B to format:

I'd just set up a Custom Format if I want to see a + displayed for positive numbers. That won't affect calculations.

SG