Formatting a Negative Number with Parentheses in Microsoft Excel

We need to display negative numbers in parentheses to differentiate the positive numbers from the negative numbers.

To display a Negative Number with Parentheses, we can use Excel Custom Formatting.

There are 4 methods by which we can format the Negative Number with Parentheses:

To apply the custom formatting in cell follow below steps:-

Method 1:

We have some negative numbers in column B.

To Format the Negative Numbers in Red Color with brackets:

    • Select the cells & right click on the mouse.

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    • Click on Format Cells orPress Ctrl+1 on the keyboard to open the Format Cells dialog box.

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    • Select the Number tab, and from Category, select Number.

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  • In the Negative Numbers box, select the last option as highlighted.
  • Enter ‘0’ in the Decimal placesbox to avoid decimals.
  • Click on Ok.
  • This is how our data looks after formatting.

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Method 2:

To Format the Negative Numbers in Black with brackets:

    • Select the cells & right click on the mouse.

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    • Click on Format Cells orPress Ctrl+1 on the keyboard to open the Format Cells dialog box.

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    • Select the Number tab, and from Category, select Number.

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  • In the Negative Numbers box, select the 3rd option as highlighted.
  • Enter ‘0’ in the Decimal places box to avoid decimals.
  • Click on Ok.
  • This is how our data looks after formatting.

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Method 3:

To Format the Negative Numbers in Red Color with brackets using Custom Formatting:

We have to apply Custom Formatting to the column B as shown in the below screenshot:

 

    • Select the cells & right click on the mouse.

img10

    • Click on Format Cells orPress Ctrl+1 on the keyboard to open the Format Cells dialog box.

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    • Select the Number tab, and from Category, select Custom.

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  • In the Type box, enter the following Custom Formatting syntax for Red color:
    #,##0 ;[Red](#,##0);- ;
  • Click on Ok.
  • This is how our data looks after formatting.

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Method 4:

To Format the Negative Numbers in Black Color with brackets using Custom Formatting -

We have to apply Custom Formatting to the column B as shown in the below screenshot:

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    • Select the cells & right click on the mouse.

img15

    • Click on Format Cells orPress Ctrl+1 on the keyboard to open the Format Cells dialog box.

img16

    • Select the Number tab, and from Category, select Custom.

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    • In the Type box, enter the following Custom Formatting syntax for Black color:
      #,##0 ;[Black](#,##0);- ;
      or
      #,##0;(#,##0);0

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  • Click on Ok.
  • This is how our data looks after formatting.

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Comments

  1. Quite helpful but, how can I keep this format permanently? Because I dont get this format on any new sheet?

Comments are closed.

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