Trying to Understand percentage in Excel

[piczim]

I am stumped! I just can not understand how the percentage function works.

I am trying to add a mark-up onto an item in a spread sheet and getting a mad answer.

What I have done is labelled cell E3 as Percentage. when I type in a figure it comes up as 10.00% I typed in 10

Then I have a very basic formula =B7 +E3 this is in cell B9

What I am trying to achieve is adding 10% to the value in B7 I have placed the figure 10 into B7

The answer I am getting is 1010.00% instead of 11.

Not for the life of me can I work out what I am doing wrong

[oeldere]

d7 =B7+(B7*$E$3)


format cell d7 as value (instead of %)

[klvaughnsd]

Yeah, 10 is not 10% .1 is. Excel uses the data in the cell not how it appears formatted. I agree with the formula given by Oeldere. It's funny though. When I enter .1 in a cell and then format as Percentage (with 2 decimal places,) it displays as 10.00%

[piczim]

Thanks for the assistance thus far. But I don't understand why I cant put in 10 and get a percentage of 10% added. If I was to give the spread sheet to someone else it would be Very confusing if they had to put 0.1 for 10% In order to get it to do an addition of 10% am I going to write a formula instead of placing a simple number into the cell

[klvaughnsd]

Thanks for the assistance thus far. But I don't understand why I cant put in 10 and get a percentage of 10% added. If I was to give the spread sheet to someone else it would be Very confusing if they had to put 0.1 for 10% In order to get it to do an addition of 10% am I going to write a formula instead of placing a simple number into the cell

It appears you re saying your users don't understand that .1 = 10%. That's a pity.

If you want to have value of 10 in a cell and treat it as 10%, in your formula, divide that cell by 100.

You have already been given the formula to increase a number by a percentage.

[popipipo]

You can't summaries a value and a percentage.
A percentage is a part of a value.

Take a look at these samples.

[Mazzaropi]

piczim, Good morning.

Using EXCEL to do percentage as so simple as using a book and a pencil.
BUT EXCEL is faster and never make mistakes!

You are in the right way.

a) "...I have done is labelled cell E3 as Percentage. when I type in a figure it comes up as 10.00% I typed in 10..."
.....This cell represents 10.00% in a absolut way. NOT 10.00% of something.
.....CORRECT

b) "...I have placed the figure 10 into B7..."
.....This cell represents a VALUE, a constant.
.....As you mentioned, a price of an item. In this case 10.
.....CORRECT

You want to have at B9 a VALUE, that represents your original price B7, PLUS a percentage of E3 OF your original price B7.
This blue part is what you're missing to consider. Only this.

When you created a E3 as percentage, you created an ABSOLUT cell.
NOW when you use it in a formula, you refers it to another VALUE, then it's a RELATIVE.

IF you SUM, B7(VALUE) with E3(PERCENTAGE) it gives you a mad answer, because at this moment, Excel doesn't know percentage of what you are referring to.

BUT if you use a Oeldere formula at B9, B7+(B7*$E$3), you'll get your desired answer BECAUSE now EXCEL knows you want a percentage of something.
(B7*$E$3) --> % of B7

Then you can make the things like you want and your users don't need to type a different number to obtain a right answer.

E3 --> Formated as PERCENTAGE
B7 --> Formated as VALUE
B9 --> Formated as VALUE with a formula: =B7 + (B7*$E$3)

I hope it helps.
Have a nice weekend.

[piczim]

Thank you very much for all the assistance. My mistake was putting a value into a cell that showed the percentage symbol and then just assuming it converted the sum to a percentage