If you want to know how to calculate percentage with Excel, then you are at the right place. I will show you how to do that in full automation.
Learning to use Excel or any other spreadsheet application is one of the most impressive talents I am very proud of. It makes me have full control over whatever data I am collecting in the spreadsheet.
Without bragging too much about my experience with spreadsheet applications, I will go straight to the point of helping you to learn the percentage calculations in Excel.
Calculate Percentage with Excel
Since I will be using lots of Excel terms, you should refer to my earlier article on Excel terms if you don’t understand anything.
To calculate the percentage of any number, the number must be a fraction. That means the number must have two parts which are the whole number and the part that is taken. With this in mind, let us build a simple scenario to get the numbers to use for the calculation.
Scenario Example: Assuming you are running a small grocery store where you sell and you want to know the percentage of goods you sold out and what is left. For instance, you have 244 cream crackers as total stock and you sold 34 out of it. You want to know what percentage the 34 is to 244 in your Excel sheet. Let us take a look at how to calculate that.
Now I have an Excel graphical representation of the scenario above. Note that labeling and colors are key in using Excel or any other spreadsheet application.
To add a little bit of automation touch, you have to change the “Total % Sold” column fields to Percentage so that anything you will type, it will automatically add the Percentage sign (%) to it.
- To change the fields, make sure you are on the “Home” Tab and the full “Home Ribbon” is in full view.
- Make sure your answer cell is the active cell
- Look for the number group on the Ribbon and click the Percentage sign (%). You can also click the dropdown menu in the number group and select “Percentage” in place of the default “General“. Refer to the image below.
Now that everything is set, let’s begin activating the percentage formula in Excel
Percentage Formula In Excel
Since I really want my guide to be easy for complete beginners, I will be using a very simple basic percentage formula for this calculation.
With the graphical projection above, let’s look at the explanation.
In Excel, the Equal sign (=) means you want to enter a formula and each cell also has a name. In short, you have to use the names of the cell for your calculations if you want to use that particular formula throughout the sheet on the same column.
So first, we have to go to our percentage field where we want our answer to be and type the Equal sign (=). Since percentage has to do with multiplying a fraction by 100, we only have to indicate that the cells B2 and C2 is a fraction where B2 is the whole number and C2 is the portion taken.
If you do this, the percentage cell will automatically multiply the fraction by 100. It means you have to indicate that C2 is divided by B2. That is what =C2/B2 represents in the formula. As soon as you key in the formula and hit the enter key, you should get your answer in percentage.
The Automation
To automate means you have more items in your sheet that you have to find percentage for. So in this case, I will add more items to the sheet for it to auto-calculate.
It is simple, you only enter the items with the corresponding figures first and follow the procedure below.
- Select the first answer
- Hover the cursor on the tinny square at the bottom-right corner of the selection until it turns into a tinny cross.
- Click, hold and drag the selection to cover the rest of the cells below and it will calculate automatically.
Refer to the image below.
That is the easiest way to calculate percentage with . If by any chance you would like to learn percentage formula itself, then simple visit this article on eduhintz.com
You can also use our Ultimate Percentage Calculator for all your calculations.