Custom Number format – How to display a negative sign on the right side of the number?

Use the following format style to display the negative sign on the right side of the number

0.00; 0.00-

Here, we are using only two sections, but custom format string should have four sections, right? i.e. positive number; negative number; zero; text (refer: Custom Cell Format(Numbers)).

Lets’ see how excel interprets your customer format string.

If the custom format string has ONLY	Positive Entries	Negative entries	Zero	Text Entries
One section	All the types of entries
Two sections	First Section	Second Section	First Section
Three sections	First Section	Second Section	Third Section
All four sections	First Section	Second Section	Third Section	Fourth Section

Our string has two sections, hence excel will apply the first section to positive and zero entries; second section to the negative entries.

Enter some positive/negative values in few cells and apply this format. This will give the result as shown the below picture (Picture A) -

Picture A

Wait, do you feel that the decimal points are not properly aligned. You are right! Let’s see how we can align it properly.

Just add an _ (underscore) and a negative sign after the first section of our custom format. (i.e. 0.00_-). Now our custom format string will look like as given below;

0.00_-;0.00-

What does it mean?

The underscore leaves a space equal to the width of the next character. In our string, it will leave a space equal to the width of the negative sign

Apply the modified format to the number you entered in the cells, the results will be as given in picture B

Picture B