Why does Excel round the least significant digit when I paste in a large number?











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If I paste the number 1542819813881128.5 into a cell of Number format in Excel the pasted value is 1542819813881120.00.



Why do these applications round down the 8.5? Is there a way of preventing this?






microsoft-excel







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  • You can only configure Excel to ROUNDUP or ROUNDDOWN, Excel only supports 15 significant digits, so a number in Excel will be rounded in one direction no matter what.
    – Ramhound
    Nov 21 at 17:44










  • See also Adding more than 15 digits in Excel. One of the answers suggest to use an addin for large number maths.
    – Doc Brown
    Nov 22 at 7:08















up vote
2
down vote

favorite












If I paste the number 1542819813881128.5 into a cell of Number format in Excel the pasted value is 1542819813881120.00.



Why do these applications round down the 8.5? Is there a way of preventing this?






microsoft-excel







share|improve this question
























  • You can only configure Excel to ROUNDUP or ROUNDDOWN, Excel only supports 15 significant digits, so a number in Excel will be rounded in one direction no matter what.
    – Ramhound
    Nov 21 at 17:44










  • See also Adding more than 15 digits in Excel. One of the answers suggest to use an addin for large number maths.
    – Doc Brown
    Nov 22 at 7:08













up vote
2
down vote

favorite









up vote
2
down vote

favorite











If I paste the number 1542819813881128.5 into a cell of Number format in Excel the pasted value is 1542819813881120.00.



Why do these applications round down the 8.5? Is there a way of preventing this?






microsoft-excel







share|improve this question















If I paste the number 1542819813881128.5 into a cell of Number format in Excel the pasted value is 1542819813881120.00.



Why do these applications round down the 8.5? Is there a way of preventing this?






microsoft-excel




microsoft-excel






share|improve this question















share|improve this question













share|improve this question




share|improve this question








edited Nov 21 at 17:39









Twisty Impersonator

17.3k126293




17.3k126293










asked Nov 21 at 17:17









MM01

11815




11815












  • You can only configure Excel to ROUNDUP or ROUNDDOWN, Excel only supports 15 significant digits, so a number in Excel will be rounded in one direction no matter what.
    – Ramhound
    Nov 21 at 17:44










  • See also Adding more than 15 digits in Excel. One of the answers suggest to use an addin for large number maths.
    – Doc Brown
    Nov 22 at 7:08


















  • You can only configure Excel to ROUNDUP or ROUNDDOWN, Excel only supports 15 significant digits, so a number in Excel will be rounded in one direction no matter what.
    – Ramhound
    Nov 21 at 17:44










  • See also Adding more than 15 digits in Excel. One of the answers suggest to use an addin for large number maths.
    – Doc Brown
    Nov 22 at 7:08
















You can only configure Excel to ROUNDUP or ROUNDDOWN, Excel only supports 15 significant digits, so a number in Excel will be rounded in one direction no matter what.
– Ramhound
Nov 21 at 17:44




You can only configure Excel to ROUNDUP or ROUNDDOWN, Excel only supports 15 significant digits, so a number in Excel will be rounded in one direction no matter what.
– Ramhound
Nov 21 at 17:44












See also Adding more than 15 digits in Excel. One of the answers suggest to use an addin for large number maths.
– Doc Brown
Nov 22 at 7:08




See also Adding more than 15 digits in Excel. One of the answers suggest to use an addin for large number maths.
– Doc Brown
Nov 22 at 7:08










1 Answer
1






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oldest

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up vote
3
down vote



accepted










Spreadsheets are not designed for highly accurate calculations. The IEEE 754 specification for floating point math calls for only the 15 most significant digits to be stored. If the integer portion of a number is 15 places or longer, the mantissa or fractional part will be dropped.



The solution is to perform your calculations in something other than a spreadsheet, which is vexing for us who have gotten really good at spreadsheets.






share|improve this answer



















  • 1




    Mind blown. This is an antiquated constraint.
    – MM01
    Nov 21 at 17:51










  • softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/questions/53292/…
    – K7AAY
    Nov 21 at 18:03






  • 1




    @MM01 , no, it is very much current, ubiquitous even in high end computers, and for 99.9999% of all users sufficient. There is very little in this world outside bleeding edge research where so many digits make any sense.
    – Aganju
    Nov 21 at 20:10













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1 Answer
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active

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1 Answer
1






active

oldest

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oldest

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up vote
3
down vote



accepted










Spreadsheets are not designed for highly accurate calculations. The IEEE 754 specification for floating point math calls for only the 15 most significant digits to be stored. If the integer portion of a number is 15 places or longer, the mantissa or fractional part will be dropped.



The solution is to perform your calculations in something other than a spreadsheet, which is vexing for us who have gotten really good at spreadsheets.






share|improve this answer



















  • 1




    Mind blown. This is an antiquated constraint.
    – MM01
    Nov 21 at 17:51










  • softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/questions/53292/…
    – K7AAY
    Nov 21 at 18:03






  • 1




    @MM01 , no, it is very much current, ubiquitous even in high end computers, and for 99.9999% of all users sufficient. There is very little in this world outside bleeding edge research where so many digits make any sense.
    – Aganju
    Nov 21 at 20:10

















up vote
3
down vote



accepted










Spreadsheets are not designed for highly accurate calculations. The IEEE 754 specification for floating point math calls for only the 15 most significant digits to be stored. If the integer portion of a number is 15 places or longer, the mantissa or fractional part will be dropped.



The solution is to perform your calculations in something other than a spreadsheet, which is vexing for us who have gotten really good at spreadsheets.






share|improve this answer



















  • 1




    Mind blown. This is an antiquated constraint.
    – MM01
    Nov 21 at 17:51










  • softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/questions/53292/…
    – K7AAY
    Nov 21 at 18:03






  • 1




    @MM01 , no, it is very much current, ubiquitous even in high end computers, and for 99.9999% of all users sufficient. There is very little in this world outside bleeding edge research where so many digits make any sense.
    – Aganju
    Nov 21 at 20:10















up vote
3
down vote



accepted







up vote
3
down vote



accepted






Spreadsheets are not designed for highly accurate calculations. The IEEE 754 specification for floating point math calls for only the 15 most significant digits to be stored. If the integer portion of a number is 15 places or longer, the mantissa or fractional part will be dropped.



The solution is to perform your calculations in something other than a spreadsheet, which is vexing for us who have gotten really good at spreadsheets.






share|improve this answer














Spreadsheets are not designed for highly accurate calculations. The IEEE 754 specification for floating point math calls for only the 15 most significant digits to be stored. If the integer portion of a number is 15 places or longer, the mantissa or fractional part will be dropped.



The solution is to perform your calculations in something other than a spreadsheet, which is vexing for us who have gotten really good at spreadsheets.







share|improve this answer














share|improve this answer



share|improve this answer








edited Nov 21 at 17:39

























answered Nov 21 at 17:33









K7AAY

3,22221437




3,22221437








  • 1




    Mind blown. This is an antiquated constraint.
    – MM01
    Nov 21 at 17:51










  • softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/questions/53292/…
    – K7AAY
    Nov 21 at 18:03






  • 1




    @MM01 , no, it is very much current, ubiquitous even in high end computers, and for 99.9999% of all users sufficient. There is very little in this world outside bleeding edge research where so many digits make any sense.
    – Aganju
    Nov 21 at 20:10
















  • 1




    Mind blown. This is an antiquated constraint.
    – MM01
    Nov 21 at 17:51










  • softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/questions/53292/…
    – K7AAY
    Nov 21 at 18:03






  • 1




    @MM01 , no, it is very much current, ubiquitous even in high end computers, and for 99.9999% of all users sufficient. There is very little in this world outside bleeding edge research where so many digits make any sense.
    – Aganju
    Nov 21 at 20:10










1




1




Mind blown. This is an antiquated constraint.
– MM01
Nov 21 at 17:51




Mind blown. This is an antiquated constraint.
– MM01
Nov 21 at 17:51












softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/questions/53292/…
– K7AAY
Nov 21 at 18:03




softwarerecs.stackexchange.com/questions/53292/…
– K7AAY
Nov 21 at 18:03




1




1




@MM01 , no, it is very much current, ubiquitous even in high end computers, and for 99.9999% of all users sufficient. There is very little in this world outside bleeding edge research where so many digits make any sense.
– Aganju
Nov 21 at 20:10






@MM01 , no, it is very much current, ubiquitous even in high end computers, and for 99.9999% of all users sufficient. There is very little in this world outside bleeding edge research where so many digits make any sense.
– Aganju
Nov 21 at 20:10




















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