How to Square a Number in Excel (2 Simple Methods)

Thanks to spreadsheet software like Excel, it has become easier than ever to find squares of thousands of numbers at a time, even if some of them are quite large.

With Excel there are two ways in which you can square a number:

Using a Formula
Using a Function

Both ways are quick and easy, as you will soon see.

In this tutorial, we are going to show you how to use the above two ways to find the square of a number in Excel.

Table of Contents

Two Quick Ways to Square a Number in Excel

To understand how to quickly square numbers in Excel, we are going to use the following dataset:

In this dataset, we want to find the square of each value of column A and display the result in column B.

Let us see how to accomplish this in Excel.

Using a Formula to Square a Number

Squaring a number simply means multiplying a number by itself, or raising it to the power of 2.

So, to square the number in the cell reference A2, you can write the formula in two different ways:

Using the multiplication operator to multiply it by itself
Using the caret operator to raise the number to the power of 2

Using the Multiplication Operator

In Excel, you can multiply numbers using the multiplication operator, also known as an asterisk symbol (‘*’).

So to multiply the value in cell A2 with itself, you can use the formula:

=A2 * A2

Thus, here are the steps you can follow to find the square of each number in our given dataset:

Select the cell where you want the first result to appear (cell B2).
Type the formula: =A2*A2.
Press the return key.
The square of the value in A2 should now be displayed as the result in cell B2.
Drag down the fill handle (the small square at the bottom right corner of cell B2) till you reach the last row of your dataset.
Each cell in column B should now contain the square of the corresponding value in column A.

Also read: How to Add Sequential Numbers in Excel

Using the Caret Operator

In Excel, you can raise one number to the power of another using the exponent operator, also known as a caret symbol (‘^’).

So to square the value in cell A2 you need to raise it to the power of 2. For this, you can use the formula:

=A2 ^ 2

Thus, here are the steps you can follow to find the square of each number in our given dataset:

Select the cell where you want the first result to appear (cell B2).
Type the formula: =A2^2.
Press the return key.
The square of the value in A2 should now be displayed as the result in cell B2.
Drag down the fill handle (the small square at the bottom right corner of cell B2) till you reach the last row of your dataset.
Each cell in column B should now contain the square of the corresponding value in column A.

Using a Function to Square a Number

Excel provides a useful function to raise a number to a certain power.

The POWER function works like an exponent in a standard math equation and raises one number to the power of another.

The syntax for the POWER function is as follows:

=POWER (number, power)

Here,

number is the number that you want to raise to an exponent.
power is the exponent you want to raise the number to the power of.

So if you want to use the POWER function to find the square of a number, say the value in cell A2, you need to raise it to the power of 2 as follows:

=POWER(A2,2)

Thus, here are the steps you can follow to find the square of each number in our given dataset:

Select the cell where you want the first result to appear (cell B2).
Type the formula: =POWER(A2,2).
Press the return key.
The square of the value in A2 should now be displayed as the result in cell B2.
Drag down the fill handle (the small square at the bottom right corner of cell B2) till you reach the last row of your dataset.
Each cell in column B should now contain the square of the corresponding value in column A.

Note: The POWER function is located along with the Math & Trig functions in the Formulas tab (under Function Library). If you’re in the Insert Function dialog box, you can find it under the Select a Category drop-down list.

In this tutorial, we showed you three very easy and quick ways to square a number in Excel.

The first two methods use a formula, while the third method uses the POWER function. We hope you found this tutorial simple and easy to follow.

Other Excel tutorials you may also like:

How to Square a Number in Excel?

Two Quick Ways to Square a Number in Excel

Using a Formula to Square a Number

Using the Multiplication Operator

Using the Caret Operator

Using a Function to Square a Number

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