Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. 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: Dividing Values.

Dividing Values

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated December 27, 2024)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365

1

It is not uncommon to need to adjust values imported from a different program, once they are in Excel. For instance, you may need to divide all the imported values by 100 or by 1000 or by some other number.

There is an easy way to perform such an operation in Excel. Simply follow these steps:

  1. Select an empty cell, somewhere outside the range used by your imported data.
  2. Enter the value 100 or 1000 in the empty cell. (Use a value equal to what you want to divide by.)
  3. With the cell selected, press Ctrl+C to copy its contents to the Clipboard.
  4. Select the imported data range. You should not select any headers or non-numeric information.
  5. Display the Home tab of the ribbon.
  6. Click the down-arrow under the Paste tool and choose Paste Special from the resulting choices. Excel displays the Paste Special dialog box. (See Figure 1.)

    7. Figure 1. The Paste Special dialog box.

  7. In the Operation area of the dialog box, make sure you select the Divide option.
  8. Click on OK.
  9. Select the cell where you entered the value in step 2.
  10. Press the Delete key.

That's it! All the values in your data range have been divided by the appropriate amount.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (6228) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Dividing Values.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

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What is five less than 6?

2021-03-15 15:43:34

william b. driskell

This tip is also good for converting numbers-as-text into real numbers. Simply copy the value "1" and past special, multiply. Note: empty cells become 0.

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