Microsoft Office

Part IV
Using Advanced Excel Features
Displaying fractions
Excel supports quite a few built-in fraction number formats (select the Fraction category on the Number tab
in the Format Cells dialog box). For example, to display the value .125 as a fraction with 8 as the denominator,
select As Eighths (4/8) from the Type list (see Figure 24.2).
FIGURE 24.2
Selecting a number format to display a value as a fraction.
You can use a custom format string to create other fractional formats. For example, the following format
string displays a value in 50ths:
# ??/50
The following format string displays a value in terms of fractional dollars. For example, the value 154.87 is
displayed as 154 and 87/100 Dollars.
0 “and “??/100 “Dollars”
The following example displays the value in sixteenths, with a quotation mark appended to the right. This
format string is useful when you deal with inches (for example, 2/16”).
# ??/16\”
Displaying a negative sign on the right
The following format string displays negative values with the negative sign to the right of the number.
Positive values have an additional space on the right, so both positive and negative numbers align properly
on the right.
0.00_-;0.00-
476