An Inquirey on the Round function

P

PA

Couldnt find the answer with extensive searches:
Does the Round function round the number of significant digits stored in a
cell, or does it round the number displayed?
I believe it to be the latter, but need confirmation.

Thank you.
 
B

bpeltzer

The result of the round function only has as many significant digits as
specified in the function. Demo: enter 4.52 in cell B5, =round(b5,1) in
cell c5. In B6, =b5*100. In c6, =c5*100. The round function hasn't changed
the value in its precendent cell (b5), but only has one significant digit in
its result in c5.
 
J

joeu2004

PA said:
Does the Round function round the number of
significant digits stored in a cell, or does it round
the number displayed? I believe it to be the latter,
but need confirmation.
Click to expand...

How did you arrive that (wrong) conclusion?

The answer is: ROUND() rounds the actual value in the
cell, not the displayed value.

You can convince yourself by conducting the following
experiment. Enter 4.49 into A1 formatted as Number
with 1 decimal place. It displays as 4.5.

In A2, enter =ROUND(A1,0). If you are right, A2 should
be 5. If I am right, A2 should be (and is!) 4.

Of course, if you had entered =ROUND(4.49,1) into A1 in
the first place, the displayed value and "the number of
significant digits stored in a cell" are the same (4.5), and
A2 will be 5. Excel has no memory of the precision of an
expression before applying the (last) function, which in
the case of ROUND() changes the precision. Perhaps
that is where you confusion arises.
 
B

Bernard Liengme

Can an old academic have a good moan?
The round function (and formatting) alter the 'number of decimal places' NOT
the 'number of significant digits'.
Please see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Significant_figure to learn what SIG
FIG is all about.
The number 12.12345 has 7 sig digits while 0.00001 has only 1; both have 5
decimal places.
 
J

joeu2004

Bernard said:
Can an old academic have a good moan?
The round function (and formatting) alter the 'number of
decimal places' NOT the 'number of significant digits'.
Click to expand...

And while we are nitpicking, I hasten to point out that the
ROUND() function does not "truncate". It, ah, rounds.
ROUND(4.45,1) is 4.5. TRUNC(4.45,1) is 4.4.

Date: Sun, 13 Nov 2005 15:32:12 -0000
Subject: Re: An Inquirey on the Round function

It truncates the 'actual' value, formatting truncates the display only
[....]
Nick Hodge
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Click to expand...
 
N

Nick Hodge

Well...I consider myself 'in place'

--
HTH
Nick Hodge
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Southampton, England
www.nickhodge.co.uk
[email protected]


Bernard said:
Can an old academic have a good moan?
The round function (and formatting) alter the 'number of
decimal places' NOT the 'number of significant digits'.
Click to expand...

And while we are nitpicking, I hasten to point out that the
ROUND() function does not "truncate". It, ah, rounds.
ROUND(4.45,1) is 4.5. TRUNC(4.45,1) is 4.4.

Date: Sun, 13 Nov 2005 15:32:12 -0000
Subject: Re: An Inquirey on the Round function

It truncates the 'actual' value, formatting truncates the display only
[....]
Nick Hodge
Microsoft MVP - Excel
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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