How to Put Negative Percentage Inside Brackets in Excel

In this tutorial, I am going to show you 4 effective ways to put negative percentage values inside brackets in excel. You can use these methods even in large datasets to represent negative percentages distinctly. Throughout this tutorial, you will also learn some important excel tools and techniques which will be very useful in any excel related task.

Table of Contents hide

Download Practice Workbook

4 Effective Ways to Put Negative Percentage Values Inside Brackets in Excel

1. Using 0 Symbols

2. Combining 0 And # Symbols

3. Highlighting with Red Color

4. Applying VBA Code

Things to Remember

Conclusion

Download Practice Workbook

You can download the practice workbook from here.

Negative Percentage in Brackets.xlsm

4 Effective Ways to Put Negative Percentage Values Inside Brackets in Excel

We have taken a concise dataset to explain the steps clearly. The dataset has approximately 6 rows and 4 columns. Initially, we formatted all the cells containing dollar values in Accounting format and all the percentage values in % format. For all the datasets, we have 4 unique columns which are Items, January Sales, February Sales, and % Difference. Although we may vary the number of columns later on if that is needed.

1. Using 0 Symbols

In this first method, we will see how to quickly put brackets around negative percentage values in excel using a formula that only includes zeros.

Steps:

First, select the cells from E6 to E8.
Then, go to the Home tab and click on the arrow beside the Number section as in the image below.

Now, in the Format Cells window, go to the Custom category and insert the following formula in the Type box, click OK:

0.00%;(0.00%)

As a result, this should insert brackets around the negative numbers.

2. Combining 0 And # Symbols

We can also put brackets around negative percentage values in excel using 0 and # formulas. Follow the steps below to do this.

Steps:

To begin with, select the cells with negative percentages and right-click.
Then, from the pop-up select Format Cells.

Now, go to the Custom category in the new Format Cells window and type the below formula in the Type box:

###0.00%;(###0.00%)

After that click on OK as we did previously.

Consequently, you should get the brackets around the numbers that are negative.

Read More: Percentage Formula in Excel (6 Examples)

Similar Readings

3. Highlighting with Red Color

In addition to putting brackets around negative percentage values in excel, we can also mark them with red colors. Let us see how we can do this.

Steps:

To begin this method, again select the cells with negative numbers as we saw earlier and right-click.
Now, select Format Cells from the pop-up.

Next, click on the Custom category and type in the below formula inside the Type box:

0.00%;[Red](0.00%)

Then, click on OK.

Immediately, this will wrap the negative percentage values with brackets.

4. Applying VBA Code

If you are familiar with excel VBA, then you should definitely try this method which can put brackets around negative percentage values with just a few clicks. Follow the steps below to apply this.

Steps:

First, go to the Developer tab and select Visual Basic.

Now, select Insert in the VBA window and click on Module.

Next, type in the formula below in the new window:

Public Sub Negative_Brackets()
Sheets("VBA").Range("E6:E8").NumberFormat = "###0.00%;(###0.00%)"
End Sub

Then, open the macro from the Developer tab by clicking on Macros.

Now, in the Macro window, select the Negative_Brackets macro and click Run.

As a result, the VBA code will create brackets around the negative percentage values.

Things to Remember

Use the shortcut Alt+F11 to open the VBA window as an alternative.
Make sure to rename the sheet in the VBA method as VBA.
You can use the shortcut Ctrl+1 to open the Format Cells window to save time.
Also, you can press Alt+F8 to open the Macro window to run it.

Conclusion

I hope that you were able to apply the methods that I showed in this tutorial on how to put negative percentage values inside brackets in excel. As you can see, there are quite a few ways to achieve this. So wisely choose the method that suits your situation best. If you get stuck in any of the steps, I recommend going through them a few times to clear up any confusion. Lastly, to learn more excel techniques, follow our ExcelDemy website. If you have any queries, please let me know in the comments.