Excel ROUND Function

Related Functions:

ROUNDDOWN
ROUNDUP
TRUNC

Function Description

The Excel Round function rounds a supplied number up or down, to a specified number of decimal places.

The syntax of the function is:

ROUND( number, num_digits )

Where the arguments are as follows:

number

The initial number.

num_digits

The number of decimal places to round the supplied number to.

Note that:

A positive num_digits value specifies the number of digits to the right of the decimal point;
A num_digits value of 0 specifies rounding to the nearest integer;
A negative num_digits value specifies the number of digits to the left of the decimal point.

Excel Round Function Examples

Column B of the following spreadsheet shows several examples of the Excel Round function:

Formulas:

	A	B
1	100.319	=ROUND( A1, 1 )
2	5.28	=ROUND( A2, 1 )
3	5.9999	=ROUND( A3, 3 )
4	99.5	=ROUND( A4, 0 )
5	-6.3	=ROUND( A5, 0 )
6	-100.5	=ROUND( A6, 0 )
7	-22.45	=ROUND( A7, 1 )
8	999	=ROUND( A8, -1 )
9	991	=ROUND( A9, -1 )

Results:

	A	B
1	100.319	100.3
2	5.28	5.3
3	5.9999	6
4	99.5	100
5	-6.3	-6
6	-100.5	-101
7	-22.45	-22.5
8	999	1000
9	991	990

The above examples show how the Round function rounds up or down, to the nearest value with the specified number of decimal places.

If you require different rounding rules, check out our comparison of Excel Rounding Functions.

For further details and examples of the Excel Round Function, see the Microsoft Office website.

Using the Excel Round Function When Comparing Numbers in Excel

It is often a good idea to use the Round function when comparing two numbers in Excel, especially if the numbers are the result of multiple mathematical calculations. This is because multiple calculations may result in the introduction of rounding errors, which may cause small inaccuracies in the numbers stored in Excel.

For example, in the spreadsheet below, the decimal 5.1 has, due to rounding errors, been stored in cell A1 as 5.10000000000001. Therefore, when compared to the exact value 5.1, the expression:

A1 = 5.1

evaluates to FALSE (see cell B1).

However, applying the Round function to the value in cell A1 removes the rounding error.

Therefore, the expression:

ROUND( A1, 1 ) = 5.1

or even the expression:

ROUND( A1, 10 ) = 5.1

both evaluate to TRUE (see cells B2 and B3 of the spreadsheet).

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