Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated November 19, 2019)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003
There may be times when you want to limit the precision used in computations by Excel. This may come in particularly handy when you are working with set-precision numbers, such as currency amounts. As you learned in other issues of ExcelTips, Excel maintains fifteen digits of internal precision, but that may not be how you have your information displayed.
This dichotomy can lead to some interesting results. For instance, let's say that you have a number stored in Excel, which is 1.44. You want to figure out what 110% of that number is, and then double it. You put the original number (1.44) in cell A1. In cell A2 you place the formula =1.1*A1. In cell A3 you place the formula =2*A2. You then format each of the three cells for Currency formatting. At this point, A1 will contain $1.44, A2 will contain $1.58, and A3 will contain $3.17.
At first glance, it would appear that the result in A3 is wrong. After all, two times $1.58 is $3.16, not $3.17. The difference is due to how rounding is done and how Excel performs internal calculations. It turns out that the value in cell A2 is not really $1.58, but 1.584, and the value in cell A3 is then 3.168. When rounded, it becomes 3.17.
If you want to get around this problem, you can do so by changing how Excel handles precision. Follow these steps:
Figure 1. The Calculation tab of the Options dialog box.
When you do this, Excel only performs calculations using the digits you have displayed in a cell. In the above example, it means that cell A3 now contains $3.16 because the calculation on A2 was done on only $1.58, as displayed.
You should note that when you change this precision setting on Excel, the numbers maintained by Excel are permanently changed. Thus, if you entered some numbers that had five digits to the right of the decimal, and then you displayed only two, changing the precision setting would permanently throw away three of the digits—those farthest to the right.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (2642) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.
Create Custom Apps with VBA! Discover how to extend the capabilities of Office 2013 (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Outlook, and Access) with VBA programming, using it for writing macros, automating Office applications, and creating custom applications. Check out Mastering VBA for Office 2013 today!
Want to easily see the location of named ranges in your worksheet? It's easy; all you need to do is use the familiar Zoom ...
Discover MoreOpen a workbook, look at the data, start to close the workbook, and you are asked if you want to save your changes. What ...
Discover MoreDefined names can be a great boon when working in a worksheet. Usually names are available throughout an entire workbook, ...
Discover MoreFREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
2015-04-27 07:32:28
Hank Jager
As per comment from Allen, yYou should note that when you change this precision setting on Excel, the numbers maintained by Excel are permanently changed. Thus, if you entered some numbers that had five digits to the right of the decimal, and then you displayed only two, changing the precision setting would permanently throw away three of the digits—those farthest to the right. In order to avoid that you can use the equation =Round(1.10*1.44,2) to get 1.58, and if you multiply that by 2 you get 3.16 as well.
2015-04-25 09:36:33
John Randall
The use of this Tip is great for currency transactions and many other situations.
The ROUND function allows a user to establish the number of digits to which the target cell value will be rounded. This may be advantageous when dealing with very large numbers - say billions or trillions of dollars or the number of miles to the Sun where a string of 9 or 12 numbers is very distracting and scientific notation is not a viable option. For example the US National Debt is now above $18,200,947,645,962. When subjected to Round(value,-9) this is reported as $18,201,000,000,000.
Note that the minus sign is needed to round a number to the left of the decimal place.
Variations of this function include ROUNDUP and ROUNDOWN which automatically establish the direction of rounding rather than following the standard protocol of determining that direction, i.e. up if the pivotal value is 5 or more and down if it is 4 or less.
In the example above, ROUNDUP would provide the same value as shown above. However, ROUNDDOWN would give a result of $18,200,000,000,000.
2015-04-25 09:31:43
John Randall
The use of this Tip is great for currency transactions and many other situations.
The ROUND function allows a user to establish the number of digits to which the target cell value will be rounded. This may be advantageous when dealing with very large numbers - say billions or trillions of dollars or the number of mioles to the Sun where a string of 9 or 12 numbers is very distracting and scientific notation is not a viable option. For example the US National Debt is now above $18,200,947,645,962. When subjected to Round(value,-9) this is reported as $18,201,000,000,000.
Note that the minus sign is needed to round a number to the left of the decimal place.
Variations of this function include ROUNDUP and ROUNDOWN which automatically establish the direction of rounding rather than following the standard protocol of determining that direction, i.e. up if the pivotal value is 5 or more and down if it is 4 or less.
In the example above, ROUNDUP would provide the same value as shown above. However, ROUNDDOWN would give a result of $18,200,000,000,000.
Got a version of Excel that uses the menu interface (Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, or Excel 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.
FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."
Copyright © 2022 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Comments