ROUND Functions in Google Sheets: Keeping Numbers Clean & Simple

Keeping numbers simple and clean by rounding them is always a good idea. This is where the importance of the ROUND functions in Google Sheets comes in.

There are specific rules for rounding numbers, and the ROUND functions in Google Sheets follow these rules.

In this post, you will learn how to use three commonly used rounding functions in Google Sheets and how they round numbers. The functions are ROUND, ROUNDUP, and ROUNDDOWN.

Let’s start with the ROUND function. Understanding this function is essential to grasp the other two easily.

Table of Contents

ROUND Function

The purpose of the ROUND function in Google Sheets is to round a number to a specified number of decimal places according to standard rounding rules.

Syntax:

ROUND(value, [places])

Arguments:

value: The value that you want to round.
places: The number of digits (decimal places) to which to round the value. This argument is optional. The default value is 0 digits (decimal places).

Examples:

The following examples demonstrate the standard rules for rounding numbers.

The first number to round is 3.15 in cell A2. The number of ‘places’ to round is 1 in the ROUND formula in cell B2.

=ROUND(A2, 1) // returns 3.2

According to the standard rule, if the next most significant digit (the digit to the right) is:

>=5, the digit is rounded up.
<5, the digit is rounded down.

If the value to round is 3.14, the formula will return 3.1.

Negative ‘Places’ in the ROUND Function in Google Sheets

The ‘places’ argument can be negative in the ROUND function. In that case, the value is rounded to the left of the decimal point.

For example, rounding to -1 rounds to the nearest 10, rounding to -2 rounds to the nearest 100, and so on.

=ROUND(116, -1) // returns 120
=ROUND(114, -1) // returns 110

ROUNDUP Function

The purpose of the ROUNDUP function is to always round up a number to a specified number of decimal places. It operates similarly to ROUND, except that it always rounds numbers up.

Syntax:

ROUNDUP(value, [places])

Arguments:

value: The value that you want to round up.
places: The number of digits (decimal places) to which to round up the value. This argument is optional, and the default value is 0.

Examples:

=ROUNDUP(14.14, 1) // returns 14.12
=ROUNDUP(14.15, 1) // returns 14.12
=ROUNDUP(116, -1) // returns 120
=ROUNDUP(114, -1) // returns 120

I hope these examples are sufficient to learn the ROUNDUP function since you already know the rounding thumb rules.

ROUNDDOWN Function

The ROUNDDOWN functions rounds a number down to the specified number of decimal places. This function operates similarly to ROUND, except that it always rounds down a number.

Syntax:

ROUNDDOWN(value,[places])

Arguments:

value: The value that you want to round down.
places: The number of digits (decimal places) to which to round down the value. This argument is optional, and the default value is 0.

Examples:

=ROUNDDOWN(14.14, 1)  // returns 14.1
=ROUNDDOWN(14.15, 1)  // returns 14.1
=ROUNDDOWN(116, -1)   // returns 110
=ROUNDDOWN(114, -1)   // returns 110