Apache OpenOffice Community Forum

Very simple but for some reason I can't figure it out. X is my total number, and I want to figure out what percentage Y is of that number, and what percentage Z is.

Example:
Cell A1: 20 (X)
Cell B1: 5 (Y)
Cell C1: 15 (Z)

Cell B2: 25% (of X)
Cell C2: 75% (of X)

I'm sure I'm over complicating it, but i just cant figure it out. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

You can use the formulas to calculate the percentages. Alternatively, you can eliminate the *100 part of each formula and format the cells to display the answer as a percentage. There is a % symbol on the formatting tool bar or you can use the menu Format -> Cells and on the Numbers tab set the Category to Percent.

formulas in col. C ; note the $ (absolute) indicator referencing A$1 in the formulas.....as you copy the
formula down in col. C , the row # 1 will stay fixed, whereas the row numbers for the numbers you are
wanting as the % of A$1 will change.

Excellent, thank you very much!

FJCC wrote:Alternatively, you can eliminate the *100 part of each formula and format the cells to display the answer as a percentage. There is a % symbol on the formatting tool bar or you can use the menu Format -> Cells and on the Numbers tab set the Category to Percent.

Sorry. This may mislead someone to think the results he is getting both ways are equivalent. Tis is an error by a factor of 100. Reformatting does not change values!

In fact a ratio expressed as "1/8" (one eighth) or as "0.125" or as "12.5%" is exactly the same.
On the other hand the value of a cell containing the formula is exactly 100 times the value of a cell containing the formula completely independent of the question in what way it is formatted (if not as 'Text').

Depending on the number format we gave the cell the result of "=1/8" can even be displayed as "03:00:00" or as "30/12/1899" (now suppressing the fractional part) without changing the numeric result of any formula referencing that cell.