The 12th crate will contain only 6 items. In this case, the answer is 12, because 204 divided by 18 is 11.333, and you will need to round up. You can use the MROUND function to find out how many crates you will need to ship 204 items. For example, suppose your company ships a product in crates of 18 items. There may be times when you want to round to a multiple of a number that you specify. This rounds the number down to 2340000, with the "234" portion as the significant digits. For example, to round 2345678 down to 3 significant digits, you use the ROUNDDOWN function with the parameter -4, as follows: = ROUNDDOWN(2345678,-4). The ROUND function rounds a whole number up or down by following a similar rule to that for fractional numbers substituting multiples of 5 for 0.5.Īs a general rule, when you round a number that has no fractional part (a whole number), you subtract the length from the number of significant digits to which you want to round. If the fractional part is less than 0.5, the number is rounded down. The ROUND function rounds a number containing a fraction as follows: If the fractional part is 0.5 or greater, the number is rounded up. Using the ROUNDDOWN function on a positive number always rounds a number down, and ROUNDUP always rounds a number up. Finally, the negative sign is reapplied, for a result of -880. Next, it is rounded down to two significant digits results (880). First, -889 is converted to its absolute value of 889. For example, using the ROUNDDOWN function to round -889 to two significant digits results in -880. Although this may seem to defy logic, it is the way rounding works. The rounding operation then occurs, and then the negative sign is reapplied. When rounding a negative number, that number is first converted to its absolute value (its value without the negative sign). You can experiment with the rounding functions and substitute your own numbers and parameters to return the number of significant digits that you want. The following list contains some general rules to keep in mind when you round numbers to significant digits. They cover rounding methods for positive, negative, whole, and fractional numbers, but the examples shown represent only a very small list of possible scenarios. The examples in this section use the ROUND, ROUNDUP, and ROUNDDOWN functions. Significant digits are digits that contribute to the accuracy of a number. In some cases, you may want to use the EVEN and the ODD functions to round up to the nearest even or odd number. In the Decimal places box, enter the number of decimal places that you want to display. In the Category list, depending on the data type of your numbers, click Currency, Accounting, Percentage, or Scientific. On the Home tab, in the Number group, click the arrow next to the list of number formats, and then click More Number Formats. To display more or fewer digits after the decimal point, on the Home tab, in the Number group, click Increase Decimal or Decrease Decimal. Select the cells that you want to format. Change the number of decimal places displayed without changing the number On a worksheet There are several ways to round a number. Or, you want to round a number to multiples of 10 to simplify an approximation of amounts. Let's say you want to round a number to the nearest whole number because decimal values are not significant to you. Excel for Microsoft 365 Excel for the web Excel 2021 Excel 2019 Excel 2016 Excel 2013 Excel 2010 Excel 2007 More.