subtracting from total: less than zero adds in another space (easy)

Hey guys

I´m an average excel user, using 2003. I´m trying to be more efficient at work.

I´ve got a problem where there are items needed, and items coming in. I want to subtract the items coming in from the items needed, however sometimes there are more coming in than needed. For example:

Coming------Needed-----Missing-----Extra
----10-----------8--------(-2)----------

I want it to be like:

Coming------Needed-----Missing------Extra
---10---------8------------0-----------2

How can I do this? I´m sure I could figure it out with trial and error but I´m using a version in Spanish and I learned in English, and I just want to make sure that what I´m doing is correct so as not to screw up in something very simple and just figure I´m doing the whole thing wrong.

Any ideas? Thanks for your help!

Nick

Hi and welcome to the forum.

Do you mean something like this?

In C1

=IF(SUM(B1-A1)<0,0,"")

In D1

=ABS(B1-A1)

Copy down.

Apologize for the delay..

I haven't see your answer..

I am not sure that i am following you.. Is my example helps?

Hey Fotis

The problem I had before was that I was using commas instead of semi colons.

However, your example does not work, because in the situation that there are no extras...for example if 8 items are coming and 10 are needed, the formula doesn´t mark the items that are still missing. Also the absolute value in extra will show that there are extra items in the sections where there are still items missing. I would post the file but it is confidential so I cannot. Thanks!

Also, what are the quotation marks for?

Nick

Nick

...Also, what are the quotation marks for?

Do you mean "" in my formula? If yes, this is when in Excel we want to say "Nothing"--"Empty cell"

...I would post the file but it is confidential so I cannot.

OK with this but you can create a small SAMPLE workbook with same data(Not Names, Not sensitive informations), so to see and understand what is the real situation...

In any case if you don't find your solution and if you upload a sample, i promise to see it tomorrow morning because for Today, i have no more time.

Thank you for the reb*