ROUND

Rounds a number to a certain precision.

Syntax:

ROUND(number, places)

returns number rounded to places decimal places. If places is omitted or zero, the function rounds to the nearest integer. If places is negative, the function rounds to the nearest 10, 100, 1000, etc. This function rounds to the nearest number.

Example:

ROUND(2.348, 2)

returns 2.35

ROUND(2.348, 0)

returns 2

ROUND(2.5)

returns 3

ROUND(987.65, -2)

returns 1000

Application:

Calculating and Rounding Exam Averages

Imagine a teacher, Ms. Davis, wants to calculate the final average grade for her students. The final average is based on three exams, and she wants to round the final grade to two decimal places for her records.

The ROUND function is perfect for this. It takes a number and the number of decimal places to which you want to round it. The syntax is typically ROUND(number, decimal_places).

Scenario:

Ms. Davis has the following student grades from three exams:

	Student Name	Exam 1	Exam 2	Exam 3
	A	B	C	D
1	Alice	85.5	92	88.7
2	Bob	78.2	81.5	79.1
3	Charlie	91	89.5	95.3
4	Diana	65.8	70.3	68.5

The formula she uses to calculate the average is (Exam 1 + Exam 2 + Exam 3) / 3.

Applying the ROUND function:

Ms. Davis will apply the ROUND function to the calculated average for each student, rounding the result to two decimal places.

Let's look at Alice's grades:

Calculation: (85.5 + 92.0 + 88.7) / 3 = 266.2 / 3 = 88.733333...
Rounding: ROUND(88.733333..., 2) results in 88.73

Let's look at Bob's grades:

Calculation: (78.2 + 81.5 + 79.1) / 3 = 238.8 / 3 = 79.6
Rounding: ROUND(79.6, 2) results in 79.6

Here is the complete table with the calculated and rounded averages:

	Student Name	Exam 1	Exam 2	Exam 3	Unrounded Average	Rounded Average
	A	B	C	D	E	F
1	Alice	85.5	92	88.7	88.733333333	88.73
2	Bob	78.2	81.5	79.1	79.6	79.6
3	Charlie	91	89.5	95.3	91.933333333	91.93
4	Diana	65.8	70.3	68.5	68.2	68.2

Conclusion:

The ROUND function is a crucial tool in data analysis and record-keeping, ensuring that numerical results are presented in a clean, consistent, and easily understandable format. In this example, it helped Ms. Davis avoid long, messy decimal values and present the final grades in a professional manner.