It’s often useful to round numbers to make them easier to work with. This is a simple task in a spreadsheet. Let’s learn how to round in Microsoft Excel.
How to Round in Excel (With the Menu)
Excel offers two quick ways to round numbers. Consider a number like 5.7473. It would be easier to work with if it was rounded to 5.747, 5.75, 5.7, or 6. To round using Excel’s built-in decimal menu, click into the cell containing your number.
Then, go to the Home tab on Excel’s ribbon. Near the middle, you’ll see the Decrease Decimal button.
Click it once, and Excel will remove a decimal, rounding your number down to 5.747. Continue clicking, all the way to the ultimate iteration, 6.
Want to add the decimals back? Simply click the adjacent Increase Decimal button.
How to Round in Excel (With Formulas)
You can also round in Excel by using the ROUND function inside a formula. This is useful if you have large datasets and want to copy the formula across them.
Consider a number like 8.5730595. You want to quickly round it to three decimal places. You can do that with a formula.
Begin by clicking into any empty cell. Type = to begin a formula, then type ROUND(. Your formula will be:
=ROUND(
Then, click into the cell containing the number you want to round. Here, that’s cell C3. Then, type a comma. Now, Excel will ask you how many decimal places you want to round to. Here, it’s 3, so type 3, and then ). Your finished formula is:
=ROUND(C3,3)
Hit Enter, and Excel returns your solution: 8.573.
if you had other values, you could copy the formula by dragging on the corner of the cell to quickly round the balance of your dataset.
As you can see, Excel offers two quick and easy ways to round numbers.
