Re: Round Function Philosophy

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If you use Excel in accounting for reconciliation of bank statements etc you
need to round or else you will be a penny off eventually.


--
Regards,

Peo Sjoblom


"Rick Rothstein (MVP - VB)" <rickNOSPAMnews@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in
message news:%23STZ5oPuHHA.5036@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
I teach Excel classes at a community college, and have a very good
understanding of the Round fuction, except for one statement I heard
another instructor make one time which has left me curious. I heard
him say that you should always use the Round fuction in any formula
where any multiplication or division is taking place. I think that's
quite a broad statement, and if true, the spreadsheet world would be
covered with Round functions. But it does beg the question...is there
something to what he said? Is there a broad rule about when a Round
function needs to be employed, and perhaps when it should NOT be
employed?

My question back to this instructor would have been... Round to what
number of decimal places? For example, how many decimal places should I
round PI to before calculating the area of a circle? The only time I can
think off the top of my head of where rounding might be something to
consider is in laboratory experiments where measurement precision, and its
effect on calculated results (error propagation), could be a
consideration.

Rick


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