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.
Save Time and Supercharge Excel! Automate virtually any routine task and save yourself hours, days, maybe even weeks. Then, learn how to make Excel do things you thought were simply impossible! Mastering advanced Excel macros has never been easier. Check out Excel 2010 VBA and Macros today!
If your arrow keys and the Enter key aren't working as you expect them to, the problem could have any number of causes. ...
Discover MoreOne of the important configuration files for Excel is known as the XLB file. You should periodically make backups of this ...
Discover MoreHave you ever opened Excel to find that the window you saw yesterday is not the same as it is today? Sometimes, for ...
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 © 2021 Sharon Parq Associates, Inc.
Comments