How to Subtract in Google Sheets

In this tutorial, you will learn how to subtract in Google Sheets.

How to Subtract in Google Sheets

Subtraction is a very common task when working with spreadsheets.

For example, you may want to calculate the difference between two values or subtract a specific value from multiple cells in a certain column.

Subtraction can also be used to compute discounts and can also be used to know how far apart two dates are.

Google Sheets makes it easy to subtract values using the subtract operator and SUBTRACT function.

In this guide, we will show you how to use this function and we will also explain how to subtract arrays or ranges.

How to Find the Difference Between Values in Google Sheets

Here’s how to find the difference between values in Google Sheets.

Step 1

Select the cell you want to place your subtraction formula.

In this example, we want to compute for the discounted price given the original price and discount.

Step 2

Type the “=” symbol and type the reference of the cell you want to subtract from.

Step 3

Type the “-” operator to indicate you want to subtract

Step 4

Finally, type the amount you want to subtract from the first number.

Step 5

We can also subtract two ranges of the same size. First, type the string “=ARRAYFORMULA(“ to start a new array formula.

Array formulas allow us to use arrays as input and return arrays as output.

Step 6

As an argument of our array function, we can type the cell ranges we want to subtract as seen below.

Summary

This guide should be everything you need to subtract in Google Sheets.

You may make a copy of this example spreadsheet to test it out on your own.