Find root in excel

Excel is like a Swiss army knife for calculations. From mathematical to financial, it’s for every single thing you need to calculate. You can calculate simple to most complex things in Excel.

Take an example of a SQUARE ROOT. A square root is a quite common calculation that we do in our day-to-day work, and in Excel, you can calculate it with ease.

You know what?

I have found that there are five different ways to calculate a square root in Excel. Yes, five different methods, which you can use in different situations. 

And today in this post, I’d like to share with you these five simple methods to find a square root of a number in Excel. So let’s learn this thing.

What’s a SQUARE Root?

Before we learn to calculate it, it’s important to understand what it really means, and how we calculate it normally.

Calculating a square root is an inverse calculation for coming back to the root of a square.

So when you calculate the square of 10 by multiplying it by itself, that’s (10 * 10 = 100). Then, square root means coming back from 100 to 10.

You can learn more about it from Wikipedia. But now, let’s learn how we can do this in Excel.

As I said, we can use 5 different ways for the calculation of square root according to the need or personal preference.

Not all methods are the same but useful.

Method-1: Use SQRT Function to find the SQUARE Root of a Number

If you need to use only one method for calculating square root, the SQRT function is that one. It’s a specific function to do this.

You just simply need to refer to a cell or specify a number.

SQRT’s Syntax: Where the number is the number or cell reference which contains the number for which you want to find the square root.

SQRT(number)

Examples:

In the below example, we have the number 625 in cell A1. So, to calculate the square root for this we can insert the below formula (Formula Bar) into B1.

=SQRT(A1)

The value it has returned is 25 which is the square root of 625. As you see, SQRT is simple to use and easy to apply.

If you have a negative number like below then it will return a #NUM!.

So the solution to this problem is to use the ABS function along with SQRT. Here’s an example:

=SQRT(ABS(A1))

When we use ABS it converts a number into an absolute number. That means a converts a negative number into a positive.

Method-2: Calculate the SQUARE Root of a Number Using the POWER Function

Another way to calculate a square root is by using the POWER function. POWER function has more power than SQRT as it returns the result of a number raised Nth to a given power.

POWER’s Syntax:

POWER(number, power)

Where the number is the number or cell’s reference which contains the number for which you want to find the square root and power is the Exponent to raise power too.

Let’s say we need to find the square root of a number from cell A1 (that’s 625) then we can use 1/2 as a powerful argument in this function.

And, the formula would be:

=POWER(A1,1/2)

As you see it returns 25 in the result which is the square root of 625.

Apply an Exponent Formula to Get the SQUARE root of a Number

If we need to insert a simple formula (other than the above two methods) to calculate a square root then we can use a simple formula using the exponent operator.

This formula is just like POWER. The only difference is instead of the function we need to use an exponent operator.

=A1^(1/2)

In the above formula, A1 is the cell where we have a number for which we need to find the square root, and then we used an exponent operator and then (1/2) for the rise to power.

The best benefit of this formula is its application. Apart from the square root, we can use it to calculate the cube root or any nth root.

VBA Code to Show the SQUARE Root of a Number

Let me tell you about a different scenario where we need to check the square root of a number instead of calculating it in a cell.

Code-1

Below is a VBA code that returns the square root when we select a cell and run this code.

Sub getSquareRoot()
Dim rng As Range
Dim sqr As Long
If Application.Selection.Cells.Count > 1 Then
MsgBox "Please select only one cell", vbOKOnly, "Error"
Exit Sub
End If
Set rng = ActiveCell
If IsNumeric(rng) = True Then
sqr = rng ^ (1 / 2)
MsgBox "The Square Root of " & rng & " is " & sqr, vbOKOnly, "Square Root Value"
Else
MsgBox "Please select a numeric value", vbOKOnly, "Error"
End If
End Sub

How this code works

When we run this code, it verifies the value in the selected cell and if that value is a number then it calculates the square root of that number and shows it using a message box. One thing you need to take care, that if you select more than one cell this code will not work.

Code-2

By using the below code we can check to enter a square root of a number without having the actual number in a cell.

Sub getSquareRoot()
Dim sq As Long
Dim sqr As Long
sq = InputBox("Enter the value to calculate square root", "Calculate Square Root")
If IsNumeric(sq) = True Then
sqr = sq ^ (1 / 2)
MsgBox “The Square Root of " & sq & " is " & sqr, vbOKOnly, "Square Root Value"
Else
MsgBox "Please enter a number.", vbOKOnly, "Error"
End If
End Sub

how this code works

When we run this code it shows us an input box asking for the number for which we need to get the square root.

And when we enter that number, it calculates the square root for that number and shows a message box with the square root. You can use any of the above codes which are perfect for you.

5. Using Power Query to Convert Numbers into SQUARE Roots

Here’s another way that we can use if you need to convert multiple numbers into their square roots.

That’s Power Query.

Below we have a table where we have a few numbers and here we want to get the square root of these numbers in one go.

Note: Using a power query for square root is a dynamic method, every time you enter a new value in your table it will return the square root of that number.

• First of all, select any cell from the table and go to Data Tab ➜ Get & Transform Data and click on From Table/Range.

• Once you click on it, Excel opens the power query editor and adds that table to it.
• From here we need to create a new column with square root values and for this go to Add Column tab and click on Custom Column.

• At this point, we have a Custom Column window opened and in this window, we need to add the following:
  • First of all, enter the column name “Square Root” in the column name input box.
  • After that, enter (=Number.Sqrt([Numbers])) in the custom column formula input box and click OK.

• Now we have a new column with square roots of the number we have in the first column.

• From here, you need to delete the first column of the original values. So, right-click on it and click remove.

• After that, go to the home tab and click on close and load too.

• Here you get a window to load data. First of all, select the existing worksheet and add range B1. Second, tick mark “Add to the Data Model”. 

As I said, this table is dynamic. When you enter a new value in the original data table it calculates its square root automatically in your new table when you refresh it. And, we are not using any type of formula here.

Once you calculate a square root from a number, the next thing you can do is add a square root symbol. And for this, we have two different ways which we can use.

1. Using a Shortcut Key

A simple way to add a square root symbol is the shortcut key and the shortcut is Alt + 251. You need to hold down the Alt key as you type 251 on the numeric keypad. and once you release the Alt key, the symbol appears.

2. Add a SQUARE Root Symbol by Applying Custom Formatting

This is the most effective way to add a symbol. All you need to do is, select all the cells, open the custom formatting option, and add formatting into the formatting input bar.

√General

3. VBA to Add a Square Symbol

You can also use below VBA code to apply custom formatting to all the cells in the selection.

Sub add_squareroot()
Selection.NumberFormat = ChrW(8730) & "General"
End Sub

Note: The benefit of using the #2 and #3 methods is you don’t need to add a symbol to all the cells one by one and when you add a symbol to a cell the value in the cell becomes a text and can’t be used further as a number.

sample-file

Conclusion

If you just want to know the square root of a number then the VBA method is the best, select the cell and run the code. Otherwise, formulas are best if you need to use a square root value in further calculations, and we have three different formulas in this list.

Power Query is a dynamic method and one must give it a try.

Now you tell me one thing.

Which is your favorite method to calculate a square root in Excel?

Share your views with me in the comment section, I’d love to hear from you. And, don’t forget to share this list with your friends, I’m sure they will appreciate it.

The square root of a number is a value that, when multiplied by itself, gives the number. The SQRT function in Excel returns the square root of a number.

1. First, to square a number, multiply the number by itself. For example, 4 * 4 = 16 or 4^2 = 16.

Note: to insert a caret ^ symbol, press SHIFT + 6.

2. The square root of 16 is 4.

3. Instead of using the SQRT function, you could also use an exponent of 1/2. Don’t forget the parentheses.

4. If a number is negative, the SQRT function returns the #NUM! error.

5. You can use the ABS function to remove the minus sign (-) from a negative number.

Excel has no built-in function to calculate the nth root of a number. To calculate the nth root of a number, simply raise that number to the power of 1/n.

6. For example, 5 * 5 * 5 or 5^3 is 5 raised to the third power.

7. The cube root of 125 is 5.

8. For example, 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 * 2 or 2^6 is 2 raised to the sixth power.

9. The sixth root of 64 is 2.

В этой статье описаны синтаксис формулы и использование функции КОРЕНЬ в Microsoft Excel.

Описание

Возвращает положительное значение квадратного корня.

Синтаксис

КОРЕНЬ(число)

Аргументы функции КОРЕНЬ описаны ниже.

• Число    Обязательный. Число, для которого вычисляется квадратный корень.

Замечание

Если число отрицательное, то SQRT возвращает #NUM! значение ошибки #ЗНАЧ!.

Пример

Скопируйте образец данных из следующей таблицы и вставьте их в ячейку A1 нового листа Excel. Чтобы отобразить результаты формул, выделите их и нажмите клавишу F2, а затем — клавишу ВВОД. При необходимости измените ширину столбцов, чтобы видеть все данные.

Данные
-16
Формула	Описание	Результат
=КОРЕНЬ(16)	Квадратный корень числа 16.	4
=КОРЕНЬ(A2)	Квадратный корень -16. Так как число отрицательное, #NUM! возвращается сообщение об ошибке.	#ЧИСЛО!
=КОРЕНЬ(ABS(A2))	Старайтесь не #NUM! сообщение об ошибке: сначала с помощью функции ABS можно найти абсолютное значение -16, а затем найти квадратный корень.	4

62

62 people found this article helpful

Using Exponents and the SQRT Function to Find Square and Cube Roots in Excel

Updated on February 9, 2020

Excel’s powerful mathematical toolkit includes functions for square roots, cube roots, and even nth roots.

Our review of these techniques will focus on the manual entry of formulas, but check out our tutorial on using Excel if you need a refresher on formula entry for core functions. A function’s syntax refers to the layout of the function and includes the function’s name, brackets, comma separators, and arguments.

These steps apply to all current versions of Excel, including Excel 2019, Excel 2016, Excel 2013, Excel 2010, Excel 2019 for Mac, Excel 2016 for Mac, Excel for Mac 2011, and Excel Online.

How to Find Roots in Excel

1. Calculate a square root. The syntax for the SQRT() function is:

   =SQRT(number)
   

   For this function, you must only supply the number argument, which is the number for which a square root must be found. It can be any positive number or a cell reference to the location of the data in a worksheet.

   If a negative value is entered for the number argument, SQRT() returns the #NUM! error value––because multiplying two positive or two negative numbers together always returns a positive result, it is not possible to find the square root of a negative number in the set of real numbers.

2. Calculate an nth root. Use the POWER() function to calculate any root value:

   =POWER(number,(1/n))
   

   For the POWER() function, you’ll supply as arguments both the number and its exponent. To calculate a root, simply supply an inverse exponent — for example, a square root is 1/2.

   The POWER() function is useful for both powers and exponents. For example:

   =POWER(4,2)
   

   yields 16, whereas:

   =POWER(256,(1/2))
   

   also yields 16, which is the square root of 256. Roots are the inverse of powers.

3. Find the cube root in Excel. To calculate the cube root of a number in Excel, use the caret operator (^) with 1/3 as the exponent in a simple formula.

   =number^(1/3)

   In this example, the formula =D3^(1/3) is used to find the cube root of 216, which is 6.

4. Calculate the roots of imaginary numbers. Excel offers the IMSQRT() and IMPOWER() functions to return roots and powers of imaginary numbers. The syntax of these functions is identical to the real-number versions.

Thanks for letting us know!

Get the Latest Tech News Delivered Every Day

Subscribe

How to Square Root in Excel: Type Symbol and Calculate (2023)

How to Square Root in Excel: Type Symbol and Calculate (2023)

Microsoft Excel is great for performing mathematical operations!

It’s one of the world’s most powerful calculators – at your fingertips.

One of these mathematical operations is finding the square root of a number.

Let me show you how it’s done in a few minutes ⏲️

If you want to tag along as you read, download the sample workbook here.

How to type square root symbol in Excel

In a written equation, the radical symbol (√) is used to denote the square root. But that symbol is not very common in Excel, right? So what should you use 🤔

That’s where the caret symbol (^) comes in 👏

In Microsoft Excel, the caret symbol (^) symbol stands for exponentiation. Exponentiation is a mathematical operation that raises the quantity to a power.

But unlike the radical symbol, using the caret symbol alone will not be enough to get the square root value. To find the square root using this method, we need to use the caret symbol with (1/2) or (0.5) as the exponent.

Why are we using 1/2 or 0.5 you ask?

That is because we are calculating the number to the power of a half. Which is equivalent to finding the square root 💡

1. Using the workbook provided, select cell B2 and type in =A2

1. Now, insert the caret symbol (^)

1. Complete the formula by adding 0.5 then press enter

As mentioned, you can also use 1/2 on the formula bar instead of 0.5. This is only a matter of personal preference but both methods will calculate the square root.

For example, type in the same formula but replace 0.5 with (1/2) in Cell B2

As shown in the above formula, we insert (1/2) instead of 0.5 and we got the same result. This only proves that whatever formulas we use, the square roots will be the same.

Pro Tip!

Note that Microsoft Excel will not get the square root of negative numbers. This is because the negative value does not have a square root. So if we try to calculate the square root of a negative, it will return the error “#NUM!” 😱

Calculate square root with SQRT function

Excel has created a specific function to perform this calculation. That is the Excel SQRT function.

It can calculate square roots without the need for extra numeric value! How cool is that 😎

SQRT function has only one argument which is the Number.

Number represents the base number on which the square root calculation is based from.

Now, let’s try using the SQRT function to calculate the square root.

Use column C on the sample workbook so that we can compare the result between the caret symbol and SQRT methods.

1. In cell C2, type in =SQRT(

1. Complete the formula by adding the cell reference A2. Add a close parenthesis ) right after the cell

1. Lastly, press enter

SQRT function is very straightforward and is a lot easier to use than the first method 💪

Same to the caret symbol method, SQRT will not accept numbers with a negative sign as shown in the below formula.

Calculate the square root in Excel with formula

Now that we understand both methods, it is time to incorporate those into a formula 👌

Let’s review the scenarios below and create the formula for each:

Scenario 1: Get the square root of a negative number

Real-life Mathematics and even Excel will not be able to get the square root of any negative number.

But there is a method that we can use to get the square root in Excel 😉

And that is converting the negative number to a positive number using the ABS function 😲

The ABS function returns the absolute value of a number without its sign.

This function has only one argument which is the Number. This is the source number that we will convert to positive.

Let’s do it first using the caret symbol method:

1. Select cell B4 and type in =ABS(

1. Put cell A4 as our reference and add a close parenthesis )

1. Insert the caret symbol ^

1. Complete it by adding 0.5 or (1/2). Press enter

Now, let’s try it using the SQRT function method:

1. In cell C4, type in =SQRT(

1. Add ABS( into the formula

1. Lastly, insert cell A4 with 2 close parentheses )) and press enter

Excel can calculate the square root of the negative number using the above formulas 🤘

This became possible as the ABS function is converting the negative (-25) to positive (25).

And no matter what syntax was selected, Excel returns the square root correctly.

Scenario 2: Set a condition to calculate the square root if the data is a number

Let’s assume you are dealing with multiple data types and you need the square root of all the numbers in a table 😨

To do this, we need the help of two other Excel functions, ISNUMBER and IF.

ISNUMBER function checks whether data is a number, and returns TRUE or FALSE. It only has one argument which is the value, that represents the data we need to evaluate.

IF is an Excel logical function that checks whether a condition is met or not. It has three arguments:

1. Logical test – a logical expression that can be evaluated as TRUE or FALSE
2. Value if True – the value to return when logical_test evaluates to TRUE.
3. Value if False – the value to return when logical_test evaluates to FALSE.

We will be using the same table for this exercise

Let’s try using the caret method first:

1. Select cell B5 and type in =IF(

1. We will then add ISNUMBER(

1. Put cell A5 as our reference and add a close parenthesis ) and a comma (,)

1. Insert the next argument by adding A2^0.5,

Looks familiar? This is the caret method we used before 😁

1. Complete the formula by adding a double quote (“”) which represents blank data.

Close the formula using a close parenthesis ) then press enter

It should look like this now: =IF(ISNUMBER(A5),A5^0.5,””)

1. Copy and paste the formula until cell B8

Let’s try it now using the SQRT function

1. Select cell C5 under the dedicated column for SQRT and type in =IF(

1. Next, insert ISNUMBER(

1. Add cell A5 as our reference and put a close parenthesis ) and a comma (,)

1. Complete the next argument by adding SQRT(A5),

Looks familiar again? This is the SQRT method we used before 😲

1. Complete the formula by adding a double quote (“”) which represents blank data.

Close the formula using a close parenthesis ) then press enter

It should look like this now: =IF(ISNUMBER(A5),A5^0.5,””)

Whichever formulas you used, will provide the same result as shown in the example.

That’s it – Now what?

You made it! Congratulations 🎉

You know now how to find the square root in Excel using these two most common methods.

It is a very useful tool when you are dealing with a lot of mathematical or statistical datasets.

But Excel is not only about mathematical functions 🙅‍♂️

There are several functions out there like FIND and REPLACE. These will make your data maintenance tasks a lot easier!

And the good news is you can learn more about them by subscribing to my free 30-minute Excel email course📧

Other resources

If you wanted to learn more about mathematical functions in Excel, then you might want to start with the basic SUM function. This will help you calculate the sum of multiple numbers in just one go 🙀

Others can even help you get the sum of a dataset based on a condition such as SUMIF and SUMIFS.

How about exploring a more complex function like VLOOKUP? This is very useful for retrieving data. Pairing it with wildcards will boost its flexibility too! Feel free to read it here.

Frequently asked questions

The Nth root can be calculated in Excel using the caret method.

We just need to inverse the power operator to get the Nth root. This can be done by dividing 1 into it.

So the formula will be =NUMBER^(1/POWER)

The square root of 9 is calculated like =9^(1/2)

Calculating the inverse square root is easy in Excel.

It can be calculated by dividing 1 by the SQRT output.

This is the same logic we did for calculating the nth root using the caret method.

The formula will be 1/SQRT(Number)

Kasper Langmann2023-01-19T12:04:35+00:00