XL: Percent Sign Is Displayed in the Formula Bar

• Microsoft Excel for Windows 95, version 7.0
• Microsoft Excel 97 for Windows

SYMPTOMS

In Microsoft Excel, when you enter a value with a percent sign (%) in a cell on your worksheet, or format a cell with a Percentage number format, the value displayed in the formula bar contains the percent sign. For example, when you enter the value 1%, the value displays in the formula bar as 1% instead of as 0.01 as expected.

CAUSE

This behavior is by design of Microsoft Excel. This behavior is different from behavior in previous versions of Microsoft Excel.

In versions of Microsoft Excel previous to version 7.0, when you enter a value with a percent sign in a cell, or format a value with a Percentage number format, the value is displayed in decimal format in the formula bar.

Note that the behavior in versions of Microsoft Excel listed above makes it convenient to enter another value in the cell that contains the Percentage number formatting. For example, in versions of Microsoft Excel earlier than version 7.0, when you enter the value 0.41 on your worksheet, and format the cell as a percentage, the value is displayed as 41%. If you then enter the value 56 in that same cell, the value is displayed as 5600%, instead of 56% as you may have intended.