How to calculate the absolute difference between two values/times in Excel?

To calculate the difference between two values or times may be easy for most of Excel users, but have you tried to calculate the absolute difference between values as below screenshot shown? Here in this article, I introduce some tricks on quickly getting the ABS difference between values in Excel.

Calculate absolute differences with formula

Calculate absolute differences with Kutools for Excel

Calculate absolute differences with formula

To calculate the absolute differences, you just need one of below formulas, paste one of below formulas to the blank cell you want to place the result, press Enter key, and drag fill handle over cells needed this formula.

=ABS(A2-B2)

=IF(B2>=A2,B2-A2,A2-B2)

Note: if you want to calculate the absolute difference between times, you only can apply =ABS(A2-B2) and then format values as time. See screenshot:

Calculate absolute differences with Kutools for Excel

If you have Kutools for Excel installed, its Change Sign of Values utility also can quickly calculate the absolute differences between two numbers.

After installing Kutools for Excel, please do as below:（Free Download Kutools for Excel Now!)

1. Select a cell that you want to place the differences, type =F2-G2, and drag fill handle down to fill this formula to the cells.

2. Click Kutools > Content > Change Sign of Values, in the Change Sign of Values dialog, check Change all negative values to positive option. See screenshot:

3. Click Ok or Apply, and a dialog pops out to remind you some information, click Yes to continue. See screenshot:

Now all negative differences have been converted to absolute.

Demo

Sum absolute value in Excel

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