Excel Practice

Division Using Excel

Video Source (04:39 mins) | Transcript

Symbol

Division in Excel uses the forward-slash symbol. /

Example: 8 divided by 2 would be written in a cell as “=8/2” (without the quotation marks).

Referencing Cells

You can reference cells when doing division too. Type in the cell reference or click on the cell you want to use when creating your equation. It might look something like “=A2/A1” (without the quotation marks).

When to use Parentheses

It is important to note that the divisor is only the number right after the slash symbol unless we use parentheses.

Example: =8/2+2 would calculate as 6 because 8/2 is 4 and then add 2 is 6.

If we want to divide by 2+2 combined we need to use parentheses.

=8/(2+2) would calculate as 2 because 2+2 is 4 and 8/4 is 2.

Similarly, the dividend, or the number being divided by another number, is the number just before the slash symbol. If you want more than one number or operation included in the dividend you must use parentheses there as well.

Example: =2+8/4 will result in 2+2=4. If however, we want the 2+8 to all be divided by 4 we must use parentheses. =(2+8)/4. This equals 2.5.