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Multiplying by percent column yields result that is 100 times too big [SOLVED]

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dhc
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast
Status: Launched

Multiplying by a percent column acts as if the percent were in fact an integer. So 100 * 50% yields 5000 in a formula column rather than the correct result of 50.

22 Comments
Scott_Beckman
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

Iโ€™m having the same issue. Any input from support on how to address this?

Andrew
Airtable Employee
Airtable Employee

Apologies, our percent field behaves a bit differently than it does in excel, as youโ€™ve pointed out. We treat the percent as formatting, and then just multiply the actual numbers. Weโ€™re looking into changing the behavior so that it does what you expect. In the meantime, you can divide everything by 100 as follows:

(Percent * Number) / 100

Tim_Wilson
7 - App Architect
7 - App Architect

+1 for changing the behavior to match Excel.

A calculated field that returns 0.5 should be displayed as 50% when the format gets switched to a percentage.

Abe_Hedaya
4 - Data Explorer
4 - Data Explorer

Just noticed this too! When formatting a column where, for example, mathematical result is 1.03, formatting as a % displays as 1.03% in stead of 103%.

Andrew_Enright
9 - Sun
9 - Sun

+1, this is really confusing.

entropic
6 - Interface Innovator
6 - Interface Innovator

No joke. +1 for making a percentage field type compute likeโ€ฆ wait for itโ€ฆ a percentage.

PS- Sorry for the snark, but having a percentage field type that just adds a % symbol to an integer is just super funky. It makes sense to just add a % when you set the FORMATTING type to โ€œpercentageโ€, but not when setting the field type for a columnโ€ฆ

Niklas_Nordstro
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

This is still not fixed.

Percentages arenโ€™t calculated as percentages, they are just โ€œpretty to look atโ€ with a % at the end.

Michael_Hall
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

+1 very confused by how Airtable multiplies percentages

W_Vann_Hall
13 - Mars
13 - Mars

This does seem to be one of the most common of Airtable 'gotcha!'s.

Until itโ€™s fixed โ€” and, unfortunately, the longer it goes unfixed, the greater the pressure will be on Airtable not to fix it, for fear of disrupting existing bases that have implemented workarounds โ€” one can use the following function:

Instead of

Value * Percent

use

Value * (Percent/100)

Similarly, if calculating a percentage discount (as discussed in this post) you can use

Value * (1-(Percent/100))

to calculate the amount of {Value} after the percentage discount has been applied.

pcf_fro
5 - Automation Enthusiast
5 - Automation Enthusiast

I have the same issueโ€ฆ somehow strangeโ€ฆ unexpected that 20% x 1 give 20โ€ฆ ??