When you work with decimal numbers, rounding can be part of your equation. Microsoft Excel offers some features to help you quickly and easily round to perfection.
You can use the simple ROUND function, always round up or down with ROUNDUP and ROUNDDOWN, or round to a specified multiple with MROUND. Let’s take a look at how to use each of these ROUND functions in Excel.
The ROUND function
The most basic of the functions is ROUND. With it, you can use a number or cell reference and round up or down.
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the syntax is ROUND(number, digits) where both arguments are required. Keep these considerations in mind for digits plot.
- If greater than zero, the number is rounded to the specified number of decimal places.
- If it is zero, the number is rounded to the nearest integer.
- If it is less than zero, the number is rounded to the left of the decimal point.
To round 3.7528 up two decimal places, you would use the following formula and get the result 3.75:
=ROUND(3.7528,2)
To round that same number to the nearest integer, you would use the following formula and receive the result 4:
=ROUND(3.7528,0)
You can also use a cell reference instead of entering the number in your formula. Here, we will round the value in cell A1 two places to the left of the decimal point.
=ROUND(A1,-2)
The ROUND function
Maybe you have a sheet of numbers that you always want to round off. This is where the ROUND function comes in handy.
the syntax is ROUNDUP(number, digits) where both arguments are required, just like the ROUND function. This function also has the same three considerations for the digits plot.
To round 5.3692 up two decimal places, you would use the following formula to get the result 5.37.
=ROUNDUP(5.3692,2)
To round that same number to the nearest integer, you would use the following formula and receive the result 6.
=ROUNDUP(5.3692,0)
To use cell reference A1 for the value and round up three places to the left of the decimal point, you would use this formula.
=ROUNDUP(A1,-3)
The ROUND DOWN function
ROUNDDOWN works the same as its previous counterpart except that it always rounds down.
the syntax is ROUNDDOWN(number, digits) where both arguments are required like the previous two functions. And this function has the same three considerations for the digits plot.
To round 7.421 down two decimal places to get 7.42, use this formula:
=ROUNDDOWN(7.421,2)
To round that same number to the nearest integer, use the following formula to receive the result 7.
=ROUNDDOWN(7.421,0)
And to round that value in cell A1 down three places to the left of the decimal point, you would use this formula:
=ROUNDDOWN(A1,-3)
The MROUND function
A little different than the previous functions, MROUND rounds to a certain multiple.
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the syntax is MROUND(number, multiple) where both arguments are required and must have the same sign. So if you use a negative for the numberyou must use a negative for the multiple otherwise you will receive an error.
To round 13 to the nearest multiple of 3 and receive the result 12, you would use this formula:
=MROUND(13,3)
To round -20 to the nearest multiple of -6 and receive the result -18, you would use this formula:
=MROUND(-20,-6)
To round the value in cell A1 to the nearest multiple of 3, you would use this formula:
=MROUND(A1,3)
Rounding is one of those tasks that you don’t have to do manually in Excel. These functions take the work out of rounding numbers in your spreadsheet.
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