Significant Figures

[kys2000]

I tried searching the subject to no avail.

Is there a worksheet function similar to round that will always round but outputs a specified amount of significant figures.

Example:
Cell A1 value = 0.0111
Cell A2 value = 0.00222

Both cells have 3 significant figures and I only need to display 2 significant figures so in theory they should display with rounding:

Cell A1: 0.011
Cell A2: 0.0022

If I use the function Round(A1,3) then Cell A1 displays 0.011 which is correct however if the value of A1 ever changes to 0.00333 or 0.00111 etc. then cell A1 will display the incorrect number of sig figs unless i changed the formula to Round(A1,4) but I don't want to be doing that all the time.

Hope this makes sense.

[pjdon2]

Hi,

I was looking for the same answer and have worked out something you might have found useful 5 years ago. lol.

=ROUND(A1,-LOG(A1,10)+2)

where in the above formula the "2" is the number of significant figures you want to display.

As an extension to your request, I would like to know if anyone knows a quicker way to either: do this or display the number as scientific notation? (ie. better/more efficiently than: =ROUND(A1/(10^(ROUND(LOG(A1,10),0)-1)),2)&"*10^"&ROUND(LOG(A1,10),0)-1)

Cheers,
Pat

[Fotis1991]

Pat welcome to the forum.

Perhaps you didn't noticed that this is a 5 yeras pld thread..

I don't believe that kys2000, will still follows it!