Subtract numbers

Important: The calculated results of formulas and some Excel worksheet functions may differ slightly between a Windows PC using x86 or x86-64 architecture and a Windows RT PC using ARM architecture. Learn more about the differences.

Let's say you want to find out how many inventory items are not profitable (total inventory minus profitable items) or how many employees are approaching retirement age (total employees minus employees under 55). There are several ways to subtract numbers.

What do you want to do?

Subtract numbers in a cell

Subtract numbers in a range

Subtract numbers in a cell

To do this task, use the - (minus sign) arithmetic operator.

For example, if you type the following formula in a cell:

=10-5

The cell displays the following result:

5

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Subtract numbers in a range

To do this task, use the SUM function. Adding a negative number is the same as subtracting.

Note: There is no SUBTRACT function in Excel. Use the SUM function and convert any numbers that you want to subtract to their negative values. For example, SUM(100,-32,15,-6) returns 77.

Example

1. Create a blank workbook or worksheet.

2. Select the content in cells A1-B7 in the following example.

   Note: Do not select the row or column headers.

   	A	B
   1	Data
   2	15000
   3	9000
   4	-8000
   5	Formula	Description (Result)
   6	=A2-A3	Subtracts 9000 from 15000 (6000)
   7	=SUM(A2:A4)	Adds all numbers in the list, including negative numbers (16000)

3. Press CTRL+C.

4. In the worksheet, select cell A1, and then press CTRL+V.

5. To switch between viewing the results and viewing the formulas that return the results, press CTRL+` (grave accent), or on the Formulas tab, in the Formula Auditing group, click the Show Formulas button.

How you use the SUM function

The SUM function adds all the numbers that you specify as arguments. Each argument can be a range, a cell reference, an array, a constant, a formula, or the result from another function. For example, SUM(A1:A5) adds all the numbers that are contained in cells A1 through A5 (a range). For another example, SUM(A1, A3, A5) adds the numbers that are contained in cells A1, A3, and A5 (A1, A3, and A5 are arguments).

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