Numbers Question - Column formula

[donka]

Hi,

I am new to Numbers on the iPad but really enjoying it for my non demanding needs. I have one question about making a full column adhere to a formula e.g.

Column Buy & Column Sell. I want a third column that will show the profit i.e. Column Profit.

Now I can achieve this by entering a formula as A3 = A2-A1 i.e. Profit(A3) = Sell(A2) - Buy(A1). Now if I copy this cell then double tap the column for Profit to highlight all the data cells in this column and hit paste I can choose to paste in the formula. Now for all subsequent rows, the Profit column will calculate based on what is entered in the Buy & Sell for that row. This works fine.
The issue is if I add a new row, I then need to paste in the formula so that it will calculate the profit for any new rows. What I want to know is, is there a way to tell Numbers that the column Profit will always use that formula for any new rows added instead of having to paste in that formula again? I guess I am trying to set a formula for the entire column and not just for specific cells.

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[pilgrimav8r]

I'm certainly no expert on this but I use it quite a lot and its easy to do in excel but I reckon if you are simply adding another row; provided the column is formatted to whatever formula you have it will continue for as many rows as you want to add. Sadly all the iWork's apps for the iPad just lack what I think are fundamental in their use, it's such a shame. I just tried to format the row and it works!

SP

[donka]

I'm certainly no expert on this but I use it quite a lot and its easy to do in excel but I reckon if you are simply adding another row; provided the column is formatted to whatever formula you have it will continue for as many rows as you want to add. Sadly all the iWork's apps for the iPad just lack what I think are fundamental in their use, it's such a shame. I just tried to format the row and it works!

SP

I can't see any way of adding a formula to a column though, I can select all the cells in the column and paste the formula to them but any subsequent rows you add will not have this formula unless you add it manually to these new rows. Setting the format of a column can be done i.e. setting to date, or currency etc. and any new rows added will have this formatting but not with a formula.

[tomcorbett28]

I don't think I'm doing this correctly. But I'm trying to get some good instructions on how numbers formulas work in numbers on the iPad 2. Excel I have been or king with for years and I see no problem at all. But Numbers is another ball age. I thought it was going to be so easy because Excel is very easy for me now.

Thanks for your help.
Tom

[Moray]

I can't see any way of adding a formula to a column though, I can select all the cells in the column and paste the formula to them but any subsequent rows you add will not have this formula unless you add it manually to these new rows. Setting the format of a column can be done i.e. setting to date, or currency etc. and any new rows added will have this formatting but not with a formula.

Try looking at the excellent book by Gary Rosenzweig, "My iPad. 4th edition". 2012, by Pearson Educational, and quepublishing.com, pages 248-250. I think you will find the answer, which includes using Footers and New Form. . He has explicitly a bright red warning about how to make a function copy itself when you add rows to an existing table.

Hope this helps..

[donka]

Try looking at the excellent book by Gary Rosenzweig, "My iPad. 4th edition". 2012, by Pearson Educational, and quepublishing.com, pages 248-250. I think you will find the answer, which includes using Footers and New Form. . He has explicitly a bright red warning about how to make a function copy itself when you add rows to an existing table.

Hope this helps..

Is there any chance of you sharing that information here?

Sent from my iPad using iPF