Round, Roundup, Rounddown

Excel incorporates many math functions into its program.  Click on the math tab in the Funexam worksheet that we have been using to look at some of these functions. 

The information in column A is essentially the same information repeated over and over.  Using the rounding tools you can take this information and change it to meet your requirements.

Skill Builder:  Reducing Decimal Places

1.	Click	Within the Cell where you desire to change the number 
		of decimal places.

2.  	Click	On the Decrease Decimal icon on the formatting 
		toolbar.  As you do so, the display within the cell will 
		change to show a decreased number of decimal places.  
		Remember that when decrease the amount of decimal 
		places shown, you are not changing the value of the 
		number, simply changing the format that is shown.

Skill Builder:  Using the Round Function

You can also use the round function to specify the number of decimal places you would like displayed within a particular value.

1.	Click	Within the Cell where you want the newly formatted 
		decimal number to appear.

2.	Type	The function equation.  With this function you will use 
		the following.  

		=round(cell address of the value you would like to 
		change, the number of decimal places you would like 
		to keep)  

		For example, if you wanted to round the value in cell A2 
		to the nearest 1/10, you would use the following formula.
		=round(A2,1)

3.  	Press	Enter.  The new value with the specified number of 
		decimal spaces will appear.

When specifying the number of decimal places you would like to keep, if you would like to round to the nearest tenth, you would specify the number of decimal places as a negative one.  If you wanted to round to the nearest 100th, you would specify the number of decimal as –2, etc.  

Now lets take a look at the roundup and rounddown functions.  Look at columns E, F, and G to examine these functions.

The roundup function and the rounddown functions work in a very similar manner to that of the round function.  The following is used with the roundup function:

 =roundup(cell address of the value you want to round up, the value of the decimal place to which you wish to round)

In order to use the rounddown function you type:

 =rounddown(cell address of the value you want to round down, the value of the decimal place to which you wish to round)

When you hit enter after typing in the above equations, Excel will automatically round the number up or down, according to which function you have entered.  This number will sometimes concur with the number produced using the round function.  However, the numbers may vary.