Roundup

**Bondiee** · 2011-11-09, 10:11 PM

I need to write a formula where it rounds to the nearest whole percentage, i.e. 6.88% to 7%, or 93.12% to 93%. I then want to use that cell and the rounded percentage in future calculations. How do I tell excel to use the rounded percentage from there. HELP!

**Jesse** · 2011-11-10, 07:31 AM

You can use the Excel =round() function. It takes two arguments, one is the data you want to round and the second the number of decimal places. Since you're working with percentages you'll need two decimal places to round it off to a single percentage.

Ie if your number is in cell A1 then you would use:

=round(A1,2)

Jesse

**Bondiee** · 2011-11-10, 03:30 PM

Thank you, I think I got that part. Now what if I need to first take the sum of A1/A2, i.e. =SUM(A1/A2) and round the answer to the nearest whole number?

**Jesse** · 2011-11-10, 05:23 PM

Assuming that =SUM(A1/A2) returns a percentage your formula would be:

=ROUND(SUM(A1/A2),2)

Jesse

**Ken Puls** · 2011-11-10, 05:26 PM

=ROUND(A1/A2,0)

But... I would ask yourself if you really want to round each calculation as you go through, or only the final number. By roundind each step in the process you may find that your final number isn't as mathematically accurate... depending on your purpose of course.

**Jesse** · 2011-11-10, 06:58 PM

Good point Ken, unless you're rounding for significant digits it should be the very last stop in the calculation. Even at that point it would be better to use number formatting to display the significance you require.

Jesse

**Ken Puls** · 2011-11-10, 07:02 PM

Ha! Didn't realize that you posted as I was writing my reply.

Bondiee, for what it's worth, I wrote the exact same formula as Jesse to start with. I removed the SUM though, as it wasn't necessary. (The computation would go in the order of operations. i.e. it would divide the two numbers, giving you one number which was then summed up.)

**Jesse** · 2011-11-10, 07:19 PM

Doh! I didn't even notice the sum.

Jesse

**Bondiee** · 2011-11-10, 08:12 PM

Thanks guys! That is all very helpful. You also touched on the other problem that I was having. Once I round that percentage, I need to then multiply another field by the rounded percentage. But Excel wants to round by the true calculation and not the rounded number, how do I tell it to use the rounded number in future calculations??