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How to change negative numbers to positive in Excel?

Author: Tech Support Last Modified: 2024-11-18

When you are processing operations in Excel, sometimes, you may need to change the negative numbers to the positive numbers or vice versa. Are there any quick tricks you can apply for changing negative numbers to positive? This article will introduce you the following tricks for converting all negative numbers to positive or vice versa easily.

change negative numbers to positive

Change negative to positive numbers with Paste special function

Easily change negative numbers to positive with Kutools for Excel

Using VBA code to convert all negative numbers of a range to positive


Change negative to positive numbers with Paste special function

You can change the negative numbers to positive numbers with following steps:

1. Enter number -1 in a blank cell, then select this cell, and press Ctrl + C keys to copy it.

2. Select all negative numbers in the range, right click, and select Paste Special… from the context menu. See screenshot:
Select all negative numbers in the range, right click, and select Paste Special

Notes:
(1) Holding Ctrl key, you can select all negative numbers with clicking them one by one;
(2) If you have Kutools for Excel installed, you can apply its Select Special Cells feature to select all negative numbers quickly. Have a Free Trial!
select all negative numbers by kutools

3. And a Paste special dialog box will be displayed, select All option from Paste, select Multiply option from Operation, click OK. See screenshot:
 set options in the dialog box

4. The all selected negative numbers will be converted into positive numbers. Delete the number -1 as you need. See screenshot:
all negative numbers will be converted into positive numbers


Quickly and easily change negative numbers to positive with Kutools for Excel

Most of Excel users don’t want to use VBA code, are there any quick tricks for changing the negative numbers into positive? Kutools for excel can help you easily and comfortably to achieve this.

Kutools for Excel offers over 300 advanced features to streamline complex tasks, boosting creativity and efficiency. Itegarate with AI capabilities, Kutools automates tasks with precision, making data management effortless. Detailed information of Kutools for Excel...         Free trial...

1.  Select a range including the negative numbers you want to change, and click Kutools > Content > Change Sign of Values.
click Change Sign of Values feature of kutools

2. Check Change all negative values to positive under Operation, and click Ok. See screenshot:
Check Change all negative values to positive option in the dialog box

Now you will see all negative numbers change to positive numbers as shown as below:
all negative numbers change to positive numbers

Note: With this Change sign of Values feature, you also can fix trailing negative signs, change all positive numbers to negative, reverse the sign of all values and change all negative values to zero. Have a Free Trial!

(1) Quickly change all positive values to negative in the specified range:
change all positive values to negative

(2) Easily reverse the sign of all values in the specified range:
reverse the sign of all values

(3) Easily change all negative values to zero in the specified range:
change all negative values to zero

(4) Easily fix trailing negative signs in the specified range:
 fix trailing negative signs

Tip: To use this feature, you should install Kutools for Excel first, please click to download and have a 30-day free trial now.

Using VBA code to convert all negative numbers of a range to positive

As an Excel professional, also you can run the VBA code to change the negative numbers to positive numbers.

1. Press Alt + F11 keys to open the Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications window.

2. There will be a new window displayed. Click Insert > Module, then input the following codes in the module:

Sub Positive
Dim Cel As Range
For Each Cel In Selection
If IsNumeric(Cel.Value) Then
Cel.Value = Abs(Cel.Value)
End If
Next Cel
End Sub

3. Then click Run button or press F5 key to run application, and all negative numbers will be changed to positive numbers. See screenshot:
vba code to convert all negative numbers to positive


Demo: Change negative numbers to positive or vice versa with Kutools for Excel