Percent Change with Mix of Negative and Positive Numbers

Copper Contributor

This is a pretty simple one -- I am trying to calculate the percent change between Column B and Column C. My problem is that there is a mix of positive and negative numbers so when I copy the formula down, it returns negative percent change when some of them should be positive. I cannot use the ABS() function with all of them because some of them really are negative changes. Is there a way to not have to correct them manually? 

Screen Shot 2023-05-02 at 10.13.36 AM.png

4 Replies

@amandaf19 

What exactly do you want? In row 2, you appear to calculate the change from B2 to C2, but in row 3, the change from C3 to B3...

@Hans Vogelaar 

 

Ideally, it would be the percent increase(or decrease) of Given Year (Column B) over the 3 Year Average (Column C)

@amandaf19 

Try this:

 

=(B2-C2)/ABS(C2)

 

Format the cell with the formula as a percentage, then fill down.