

However, if you use the optional count argument, you can specify the number of decimal places to include. Used with only this argument, all three functions round to the nearest whole number, so that 46.5 would round to 47 with ROUND or ROUNDUP and 46 with ROUNDDOWN. In these cases, you might prefer to use ROUNDUP or ROUNDDOWN, whose names, which, just as their names suggest, round a number to the nearest integer above or below it.Īll three of these functions require the single argument of number - the cell or number to be rounded. Conversely, you might choose to round down to give a slight discount to a long-established customer. For instance, if you are one of those contractors who bills a full hour for any fragment of an hour you work, you would want to always round up so you didn't lose any money. However, at times, you may not want to follow these rules. 4 or less gets rounded down, while one of. This function will round off a number according to the usual rules of symmetric arithmetic rounding: a decimal place of. The most basic function for rounding numbers in Calc is ROUND. Which choice you make for layout depends largely on your work habits personally, I prefer the second, on the grounds that I may not remember the details of what I am doing if I look at the spreadsheet six months after I create it. If that is the case, then you are probably better off separating the two functions, placing =SUM(A1 A2) in cell A3, and =ROUND (A3) in A4, and clearly labelling each function. But, even though you don't need to work with exact figures everyday, you may still want to refer to them occasionally. For instance, the formula =ROUND((SUM(A1 A2)) adds the figures in cells A1 and A2, then rounds them off to the nearest whole number. If you choose, you can nest a calculation within one of the rounding functions. When you use a rounding function, you have two choices about how to set up your formulas. By learning the options for rounding, you can make your spreadsheets more immediately useful for you. You may want to round off for billing purposes, or because decimal places don't translate well into the physical world - for instance, if the parts you need come in packages of 100, then the fact you only need 66 is irrelevant to you you need to round up for ordering. However, you don't need to be a specialist to find some of these methods useful. If you're a programmer, you may also be familiar with some of these methods. For statistical and mathematical purposes, 's Calc spreadsheet includes a variety of ways to round off numbers.
