How to use the FLOOR.PRECISE function
What is the FLOOR.PRECISE function?
The FLOOR.PRECISE function rounds a number down to the nearest integer or nearest multiple of significance.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
What is nearest multiple of significance?
The nearest multiple of significance means to the closest number that a value gets rounded to for a given level of precision. It is based on the number of significant figures or decimal places desired.
For a certain precision, it is the nearest multiple of a power of 10.
For 2 significant figs, nearest multiples are 10, 100, 1000, etc.
For 3 decimal places, nearest multiples are 0.001, 0.01, 0.1, 1, 10, etc.
Values get rounded to the closest multiple of significance at the desired precision. So if reporting to 2 significant figures, 4874 would round to 4900, since the nearest multiple of significance is 100 at that precision.
If reporting to 3 decimal places, 15.4732 would round to 15.473, since the nearest multiple is 0.001. This helps keep rounding consistent and at an appropriate level of precision when doing math calculations and measurements.
What is an integer?
An integer is a whole number that can be positive, negative, or zero, but not a fraction or decimal.
How to round numbers?
Rounding is a method to simplify a number by reducing its digits while keeping its approximate value close to the original value.
There are a few common ways to round:
-
- Round to a set number of decimal places, rounding 2.13579 to 2 decimal places gives 2.14.
- Round up or down to the nearest integer, rounding up 2.3 gives 3. Rounding down 2.3 gives 2.
- Round to a set increment, rounding to the nearest 10 rounds 17 to 20.
- Round to significant figures, rounding 2.333 to 3 significant figures gives 2.33.
When rounding, look at the first digit after where you want to round. If it's 5 or more, round up. If less than 5, round down. Rounding makes numbers cleaner and easier to work with in many everyday situations, however, they may also cause rounding errors like rounded values can compound errors. Rounding measurements and constants may reduces precision. It is better to round numbers after performing calculations than before.
What is a decimal place?
A decimal place refers to each position held by a digit in a number. The first decimal place is the tenths place (1/10), the second is the hundreds place (1/100) and so on.
What is a comma?
Commas are frequently used in large numbers to help read and interpret the values easier. Commas separate thousands place values in large numbers. For example:
- 10,000 - ten thousand
- 100,000 - one hundred thousand
- 1,000,000 - one million
The comma creates groups of three digits, making it easier to count the zeroes and understand the scale.
In decimal numbers with both whole and fractional parts, commas separate the whole number groups of three digits. For example:
- 3,421.256
- 102,734,221.985
What other Excel functions round numbers?
| ROUND | Rounds a number to a specified number of digits |
| ROUNDUP | Rounds a number up, away from zero |
| ROUNDDOWN | Rounds a number down, towards zero |
| MROUND | Rounds a number to the nearest multiple of a specified value |
| CEILING | Rounds a number up to its nearest multiple. |
| ODD | Returns number rounded up to the nearest odd integer. |
| EVEN | Rounds a number up to the nearest even whole number. |
| FIXED | Rounds a number to the specified number of decimals, lets you ignore comma separators. |
| FLOOR.MATH | Rounds a number down to the nearest integer or to the nearest multiple of significance. |
| FLOOR.PRECISE | Rounds a number down to the nearest integer or to the nearest multiple of significance. |
2. Syntax
FLOOR.PRECISE(number, [significance])
| number | Required. |
| [significance] | Optional, the number is rounded down to the given multiple. The default value is 1. |
The sign of the number does not determine if the number is rounded down, see image above.
The FLOOR.PRECISE function returns 0 (zero) if number or [significance] is zero.
3. Example 1
This example shows how to use the FLOOR.PRECISE function. The image shows the number to round down to its nearest multiple of significance in column B, the significance argument in column C. The result is shown in column E.
The first number in cell B3 is -5.4. The arguments are:
- number - B3 (a cell reference to the value we want to round)
- [significance] - C3 (a cell reference to the multiple of significance)
Formula in cell F3:
Cell E3 returns -6 based on -5.4 and -1 as the multiple of significance. -6 is the nearest multiple of significance rounded down.
The next number I want to talk about is in cell B6 which contains -5.4. The arguments are:
- number - B6 (a cell reference to the value we want to round)
- [significance] - C6 (a cell reference to the multiple of significance)
Formula in cell E6:
Cell E6 returns -6 based on -5.4 and 1 as the multiple of significance. -6 is the nearest multiple of significance rounded down.
The next number I want to talk about is in cell B9 which contains 5.4. The arguments are:
- number - B9 (a cell reference to the value we want to round)
- [significance] - C9 (a cell reference to the multiple of significance)
Formula in cell E9:
Cell E6 returns 5 based on 5.4 and 1 as the multiple of significance. 5 is the nearest multiple of significance rounded down.
4. Example 2
A right triangle has an area equal to the square root of 78 square units. If the length of this rectangle is 6 units, what is its width? Round the number down to an multiple of significance of 0.2 using the MATH.PRECISE function.
Lets begin calculating the width of the right angled triangle. The area is the size of the surface enclosed by the triangle expressed in square units like square meters, square feet, etc. Width is the measure of one of the sides of the rectangle perpendicular to the other side specified to 6 units.
The units used for length and width must be the same and the area will be expressed in square units of those same units.
Area = length * width / 2
Area = square root of 78
height = 6
width = 2 * area / length
width = 2* √78 / 6
FLOOR.PRECISE arguments:
number = 78^0.5 / 6
significance = 0.2
Formula in cell C21:
√78 / 6 = 2.94392028877595 and the FLOOR.PRECISE function converts it to 2.94 units which represents the width of the triangle displayed in the image above.
The image above shows the right triangle with one side equal to 6 and the other side named width is not known indicated by the question mark. A right triangle has one angle equal to 90 degrees, the area is √78 units.
Functions in 'Math and trigonometry' category
The FLOOR.PRECISE function function is one of 62 functions in the 'Math and trigonometry' category.
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