Subtraction

[Deb Mitchell]

I would like to subtract the following numbers.
54139 30682 71804

71804-(54139+30682) in that order. I should get a negative number but all I get is this result #VALUE!

Help

[Brian from Maui]

I would like to subtract the following numbers.
54139 30682 71804

71804-(54139+30682) in that order. I should get a negative number but all I get is this result #VALUE!

Help

I got -13017

=71804-(54139+30682)

Are they in different cells? What cells are they in? You may have formatted one as text.

[Aladin Akyurek]

Test whether each cell gives TRUE when you apply...

=ISNUMBER(cell)

[Joe4]

A bit more information is needed:

Are you trying to type it into one Excel cell? If so, you need an equal sign:
=71804-(54139+30682)

[Deb Mitchell]

I got it. I was formating it =D3-(B3:C3). I changed the ":" to a "+" and it works. =D3-(B3+C3).

Thanks!