What are the basic mathematical operators in Notion formulas?

Notion formulas include five fundamental mathematical operators that handle everything from basic calculations to string manipulation: addition (+), subtraction (-), multiplication (*), division (/), and modulo (%). These operators work seamlessly with your database properties to create dynamic calculations, whether you're tracking project budgets, calculating progress percentages, or building custom formulas for your workspace. Understanding how each operator functions will help you build more powerful and reliable formulas in your Notion databases.

The addition operator (+) serves a dual purpose in Notion formulas. For numbers, it performs standard addition like prop("Price") + prop("Tax") to calculate totals. However, addition also concatenates strings, making it valuable for combining text elements such as "Hello, " + prop("Name"). This versatility makes addition one of the most frequently used operators in Notion, particularly for creating dynamic text displays and financial calculations.

Subtraction (-), multiplication (*), and division (/) work exclusively with numeric values and follow standard mathematical rules. You'll commonly use these for calculating differences like prop("Budget") - prop("Expenses"), scaling quantities, or determining ratios and percentages. Division proves especially useful for progress tracking, such as (prop("Calories Burned") / prop("Goal")) * 100 to show percentage completion. However, you must be cautious with division by zero, which will cause formula errors.

The modulo operator (%) returns the remainder after division and helps with cyclical calculations. While less commonly used, it's particularly effective for determining even or odd numbers using prop("Index") % 2 or creating alternating patterns in your databases. This operator works well for conditional formatting or organizing data in recurring cycles.

When working with these operators, remember that type compatibility matters significantly. While addition handles both numbers and strings, the other operators only work with numeric values. Attempting to multiply strings or divide text will result in errors. To avoid issues, always ensure your property references contain the expected data types and consider using conditional statements to handle empty values. These operators perform efficiently even with large datasets, making them reliable tools for building complex formulas that scale with your growing Notion workspace.