Need Positive Number When Calculating from Two Cells...
Posted by Brian Sanburn on October 10, 2001 10:14 AM
Hello,
I'm a definite Excel novice so hopefully I can explain my situation clearly. I have started producing a spreadsheet which shows sales figures from both this year (F3) and last year (E3). The figure I have (either positive or negative) that represents the dollar difference between the two years' sales numbers (H3) is divided into the total sales number from the earlier year (E3) to give me a percentage difference from last year to this year (I3)--that is H3/E3 (dollar difference/last year sales). In this particular instance the product showed a 19% sales decline from last year to this year. So it appears I've set up the formula correctly. The problem comes when there are no sales of the product from last year. So, as an example, I have a new product that had sales of $10,000 this year but $0.00 last year. The dollar difference is represented correctly ($10,000 over last year) but the formula for a percentage displays "#DIV/0!" Am I doing something incorrectly and is there a way to set up a formula that will correctly show the %10,000 increase in sales from last year to this? Thank you for whatever help someone can offer.
Brian Sanburn