how to display numbers in parentheses in excel

by Ching-Wan Yip

Last Updated: April 12, 2017 9:20 AM

First published: April 7, 2017

Excel displays numbers in parentheses as negative by default.

you can do one of the following to override it

• put ' in front (aka Lotus-1-2-3 style, the other 2 prefixes ^ " for center and right align don't work though)
• use double quote in a formula, e.g. ="(123)"
• change the format to text style