In this tutorial, we will learn how to multiply cells in Microsoft Excel along with examples which can help you understand easily. Multiplying in Excel is one of the most frequently used functions. Therefore it is not surprising that there are several ways to do it.
With this method, you will know what is best suited to what you trying to accomplish in your worksheet whether it’s a work task or school work.
Here are a few of your simplest options to perform multiplication.
How to Multiply Two Cells in Excel
The easiest way to multiply two cells in the column is by multiplying numbers in a single cell by a formula. For instance, you are going to type, (=5*3) into the cell and click enter on the keyboard. You should see cell output 15.
You can also multiply a column of two different cells together. Here are the example and steps on how to do this:
| Steps | Figures |
| 1. In a selected cell, type “=”. |  |
| 2. Click on the cell that contains the first number you want to multiply. |  |
| 3. Type the multiplication operator “*”. |  |
| 4. Click the second cell you want to multiply. |  |
| 5. Press Enter. |  |
You aren’t limited to multiplying just two cells — you can multiply up to 255 values at once using the PRODUCT function formula.
Using this formula, you can multiply individual cells and numbers by separating them with commas and multiplying a series of cells with a colon.
Example:
“=PRODUCT(A, B2:B5, C2:C5)”
This explains Excel would multiply (A1 x B2 x B5 x C2 x C5) because B2:B5 indicates that it should multiply B2,B3, B4, B5 and cell A1, C2, C3, C4, C5.
Note: The order of the cells and numbers doesn’t matter in achieving product of multiplication.
How to Multiply a Cell by a Number in Excel
This time let us consider to multiply numbers in excel with the same value. So, it could be done by using the absolute reference value of the cell’s column by a constant number.
1. Set up a column of numbers you want to multiply, and then put the constant in another cell. In our case, we will get the 10% of the total item, assuming it’s a constant value.
2. In a new cell, type “=” and click the first cell you want to multiply.
3. Type the name of the cell that contains the constant, adding a “$” before both the letter and number. The dollar sign turns this into an absolute reference, so it won’t change if you copy and paste it into the spreadsheet.
4. Press Enter in your keyboard and you will see the result.
Tips: You can now copy and paste this to additional cells to perform the multiplication on the other numbers. The easiest way to do this is to drag the cell by its lower right corner to copy it.
How to Multiply Multiple Cells in Excel
In Excel, you can multiply multiple cells along with the constant values in your worksheet. So will be utilizing methods that work well in putting constant numbers and multiplying multiples cells. These are using paste Special Command and other Excel formulas.
Using Paste Special Command
- First, we will set a constant value. Here we use ‘10%’ as a constant value in a blank cell.
- Now, copy the constant value and select the range of cells you want to multiply with the constant value.
- Go to the Home tab and click on Paste.
- From the Paste option, select Paste Special.
- A Paste Special dialog box will appear. From there, select all in the Paste section and select Multiply in the operation section. Finally, click on ‘OK.’
- This will give a result that shows all the given range of cells are multiplied by the given constant value.
Using Formula in Excel
- First, write any constant value in a blank cell.
- Now, select another column where you want to put your new values after using multiplication.
- Press Equal Sign (=) to start the process. Now, select the cell reference and constant value cell reference. Use Asterisk Sign (*) between two cell references. Write the following formula:
- Press Enter to get the result.
- Drag the Fill Handle icon to the last position where you want to copy the formula.
Note: Here, you can see we use a dollar sign ($) to represent the constant value cell reference. The dollar sign can transform the constant value reference into an absolute cell reference.
Summary
In conclusion, we discussed how to multiply cells in excel, along with we learned that even though there’s no multiplication formula there are a lot of ways we can use to perform arithmetic operator multiplication. Thus multiplying numbers in excel just in a single cell but also considering multiple cells.
If you have any clarification don forget to leave a comment and visit our last Excel tutorials.
Thank you for reading!