Excel question?

Question

I know how to sum a column, but my daughter and I are saving one million pennies, and she wants to do a count down from a million keep a running subtraction but I can't figure out how to do it.

Answer 1

If all the numbers are in column A, starting in Row 2, you could just put in A1 this formula

=1000000-sum(A2:A1000)

or you can replace the A1000 with however far you might take it.

Answer 2

It depends on how you are accounting for the pennies. If she is making an entry for each penny then I would handle it one way. If she is just counting the pennies and not making an individual entry for each one then the answer is simple.

=1,000,000-Sum(B1:B2) would be the formula for adding the numbers in the B column finding that sum and then subtracting it from 1 million to arrive at the number of pennies that she still needs.

I would make two entries, on that uses the sum function to tell her how many pennies she has and a second to tell her how far she has to go.

Clearly you need to modify the formula I gave you to sum all the entries for the pennies and to use the column that you have those numbers in.

You may also want to select the entire column and right click on it. Then select the format cells option and go to numbers. Then you can set the number of decimal points, specify that entries in this column will only be numbers, and you can include the comma between each three numbers or not. You can also use this dialog box to add borders, like an line between the list of pennies and the total sum.

Answer 3

If you put the number 1,000,000 in a box, we'll say A1, and then in B1, type =a1-1 and then use your fill handle, which is the little cross that shows up if you put your arrow in the lower right corner of a cell, and drag, it will copy the formula to the other cells but match it up so that the numbers count down in order...maybe you should use higher increments though, like 10's or 100's...just mess with it, but use your fill handle

Answer 4

Try this in a new worksheet

Cell A1 would have {1000000}
Column B enter daily penny additions
Cell C1 would have {=+A1-SUM(B:B)}

Hope this helps

Answer 5

I Love working with Excel and putting together new spreadsheets is fun for me. I just put one together quickly that I think will do what you want it to do.

Contact me, via eMail, if you are interested in it. I will gladly send it to you.

Have Fun and Good Luck!!!!!!!