Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Notation for Thousands and Millions.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated May 29, 2021)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021
Jim wonders how he can get Excel to automatically display numbers using "k" for thousands and "m" for millions. As an example, if a cell contains the value $470,000 he would like it displayed as $470k; if it contains the value $1,107,432 he would like it displayed as $1.1m.
One obvious method is to create a formula that will display the information as desired. The following formula will take into account the magnitude of the number in cell B2 and then provide a formatted text string appropriate to that magnitude:
=IF(B2 < 1000,B2,IF(B2 < 1000000, "$" & ROUND(B2/1000,1) & "k", "$" & ROUND(B2/1000000,1) & "m"))
Remember that this is a single formula and should be entered entirely on one line. The drawback with such an approach, of course, is that the formula takes up space within your worksheet. To get around this you could, instead, create a custom format that will simply affect the display of the number in the cell.
To create a custom format, display the Home tab of the ribbon and click the small icon at the lower-right corner of the Number group. In the resulting dialog box, click Custom at the left side. Here's the custom format you should create in the dialog box:
[>1000000]$#.0,,"m";[>1000]$#,"k";$#,##0
This format will display both millions and thousands using the desired notation. If the number is below a thousand then it will be displayed without any special notation. As appropriate, values are rounded to one decimal place.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (6146) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Notation for Thousands and Millions.
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2025-02-27 18:25:29
Bob
[>999999]$#.0,,"m";[>999]$#,"k";$#,##0
2025-02-27 12:29:03
Dave Bonin
To Kiwerry,
I've run into that same limitation that custom number formats only allow for two conditions.
Fortunately, you can get around that by using conditional formats to get as many custom number formats as you like. I haven't had to use this workaround often, by it's been handy when I did.
To Alan Cannon,
I've also run into some international accounting situations where millions is expressed as MM, or where there is a side note indicating numbers are in ($000s). For the latter, no suffix character is needed.
To all,
Personally, I prefer using one method and sticking with it all the way through with as few exceptions as possible. Mixing $x,xxxk and $y,yyyM in the same report is often confusing to the reader.
2025-02-27 09:35:53
Kiwerry
Thanks as aye for an interesting tip, Allen.
Comments:
The Custom Format approach allows further calculations which reference this cell; what is shown may not look like a pure (no Text) number, but it is, and it can be used in subsequent calculations.
The formula approach is more flexible; adding further tests (e.g. show a number as Tb or Gb or Mb or Kb or Bytes) is possible; Custom formatting rejected my attempt to add a third condition in front of the other two
In my experience the continued usability of the cell's contents is generally the deciding factor.
2025-02-27 09:24:48
ErQC
You can also use a custom format.
(see Figure 1 below)
Figure 1.
2025-02-27 07:56:14
Alan Cannon
In the engineering and scientific world, "m" is not millions; it is short for "milli" meaning 1/1000. Millions is designated with "M" for "Mega". For example, mg is milligrams and MT is megatons.
2025-02-27 05:23:42
Rene
The only problem with the display option is that totals will work on the underlying figures and therefore the displayed numbers may not equal the displayed total.
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and 2021. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here:
Comments