Rounding in Excel

 Apr 22, 2016

There are times where, despite its precision, you'd like Excel to do a little work for you in terms of reducing precision.

There are three functions used to round numbers in Excel; ROUND, ROUNDUP and ROUNDDOWN.

NB: Numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4 get rounded down whereas 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9 get rounded up.

ROUND
Round a number to 1 decimal place =ROUND(A1,1)
Round a number to 4 decimal places =ROUND(A1,4)
Round a number to the nearest integer (or whole number) =ROUND(A1,0)
Round a number to the nearest '10' =ROUND(A1,-1)
Round a number to the nearest '100' =ROUND(A1,-2)
 
ROUNDUP
Round a number up to one decimal place =ROUNDUP(A1,1)
Round a number up to the nearest whole integer =ROUNDUP(A1,0)
 
ROUNDDOWN
Round a number down to one decimal place. =ROUNDDPWN(A1,1)
Round a number down to the nearest whole integer =ROUNDDOWN(A1,0)

Again, it's important to realise that when you round a number, you lose precision, so ideally, don't do this on values that form the intermediary stages of a more complex calculation.

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Steve is a highly experienced technical trainer with over 10 years of specialisation in Software Application Development, Project Management, VBA Solutions and Desktop Applications training. His practical experience in .NET programming, advanced solution development and project management enables him to train clients at all levels of seniority and experience. Steve also currently manages the IT infrastructure for New Horizons of Brisbane, providing him with daily hands-on experience with SCCM, Windows Server 2012 and Windows 8.

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