One of the most basic operations in Excel is subtracting cells, which can be done in a few simple steps. It is a powerful tool that allows users to store, organize, analyze, and manipulate data. Microsoft Excel is one of the most widely used spreadsheet programs in the world. This will compare the values in the A1:A2 range to the values in the B1:B2 range, and display the differences between them in a comparison table. To do this, select a cell and type =A1:A2 vs B1:B2. You can also use the comparison operator to compare two cell ranges. For example, =A1 vs A2 will compare the values of cell A1 and A2, and display the difference between them. This will subtract the values in the B1:B2 range from the A1:A2 range.įor comparison between two cells in Excel, you can use the “vs” operator. To do this, select a cell and type =A1:A2-B1:B2. You can also use the subtraction operator to subtract two cell ranges. To do this, select a cell and type =SUM(A1:A2) to subtract the values in cells A1 and A2. You can also use the SUM function to subtract two or more cells. For example, =A1-A2 will subtract the value of cell A2 from the value of cell A1. Just type a minus sign (-) between two cells to subtract them. In case you have time values in Excel, what you really have in the back end in Excel are decimal numbers that represent that time value (which are formatted to be shown as time in the cells).Īnd since these are numbers, you can easily subtract these.īelow I have a data set where I have the start time and the end time, and I want to calculate the difference between these two times.Subtracting cells in Microsoft Excel is easy. While the day part of the date would be represented by the whole number, the time part would be represented by the decimal.įor example, 44197.5 would represent 12:00 PM and 44197.25 would represent 09:00 AM Just like dates, even time values are stored as numbers in Excel. You can read more about subtracting dates in Excel here Subtract Time in Excel So you won’t be able to subtract dates with such a format For example, if you use, Excel won’t recognize it as a date and consider it a text string. Note: This formula would only work when you using a date that Excel recognizes as a valid date format.

You can easily adjust this and get the values in numbers by going to the Home tab, and select General in the number format drop-down. This sometimes happens when Excel tries to be helpful and pick up the format from the adjacent column. There is a possibility that Excel will give you the result in the date format instead of a number as shown above.

Formula to subtract cells in excel