How to round a number up or down

[Sabrina]

We use an Excel spreadsheet to calculate drug doses for our veterinary
surgical practice. Is there a way to format the cell to round up or down? I
have tried using the round function but it does not work the way we need it
to. Basically, if the number after the decimal point is greater than or
equal to 5, we want it round up (or down, if need be). The only reason it
matters is because we base other calculations on the worksheet on this
calculation and it throws the rest of them off.

 

[David Biddulph]

In what way does the ROUND function not do what you want?
Please give an example of the formula you are using, the input value, the
answer it gave, and the answer you expected.

 

[ND Pard]

Try the functions: RoundUp and / or RoundDown

Good Luck.

 

[Sabrina]

The formula for the cell is =((B4)/2.2)*0.1 where B4 is the patient's weight.
As an example, the weight is 23 pounds. This calculates a dose of 1.05 for
Duramorph. I would like it to be rounded to 1.1, as I use this cell as a
base to calculate other doses of medications. In an emergency, we do not
have time to check the original dose to make sure it was rounded up/down and
then re-calculate dosage for other meds. Basically, I want it to round up or
down based on whether the numbers after the decimal point are greater than,
less than or equal to 5. I apologize if this sounds like a stupid question,
but we are all beginners here with Excel and we are modifying a spreadsheet
that was created by someone else for us.

 

[David Biddulph]

Your problem in that case is that with an input of 23 pounds, your formula
=((B4)/2.2)*0.1 does not give 1.05, it gives 1.045455, and hence it would
round down to 1.0, rather than up to 1.1.

If you wanted to round initially to 2 decimal places to get 1.05, and then
round to 1 place, then instead of
=ROUND(((B4)/2.2)*0.1,1) you'd need
=ROUND(ROUND(((B4)/2.2)*0.1,2),1)
but that process would be as illogical as it is ugly. Please think
carefully about whether you really want to do that.

If I were a pedant, I might also ask whether you really want to divide by
2.2, or whether you intended to divide by 2.20462 (or multiply by 0.453592).
I guess that the initial weighings in pounds may not be very accuarate or
precise, and that the approximation you are making may be acceptable, but
you ought perhaps to think about this aspect as well as about your rounding.