Former Lifewire writer Ted French is a Microsoft Certified Professional who teaches and writes about spreadsheets and spreadsheet programs.

You can use the ROUNDUP function in Excel to round a number away from zero by a specified number of decimal places or digits.

This function will always round upward, such as 4.649 to 4.65.

When you use the ROUNDUP function on negative numbers, they decrease in value (away from zero).

A functions syntax refers to the layout of the function and includes the functions name, brackets, and arguments.

This argument can contain the actual data for rounding, or it can be a cell reference to the location of the data in the worksheet.

If the Numdigits argument is 1, the function leaves only one digit to the right of the decimal point and rounds it up to the next number.

If the Numdigits argument is negative, the function removes all decimal places and rounds up that number of digits to the left of the decimal point.

For example, if the value of the Numdigits argument is -2, the function will remove all digits to the right of the decimal point and round the first and second digits to the left of the decimal point up to the nearest 100.

That image also displays examples and explanations for several results returned by Excels ROUNDUP function for data in column A of the worksheet.

The results, shown in column B, depends on the value of the Numdigits argument.

In this example, were going to reduce the number in cell A2 (above) to two decimal places using the ROUNDUP function.

In the process, the function will increase the value of the rounding digit by one.

Options for inputting the function and its arguments include.

Using the dialog box simplifies entering the functions arguments.

With this method, its not necessary to key in commas between each of the functions arguments as you must when typing the function into a cell.

In this case between A2 and 2.).

Choose Math Trig from the ribbon to open the function drop-down list.

Select cell A2 in the worksheet to enter that cell reference into the dialog box as the location of the number to be rounded.

Type 2 to reduce the number in A2 from five to two decimal places.

Click OK to close the dialog box and return to the worksheet.

Select cell see the function ROUNDUP(A2, 2 ) in the formula bar above the worksheet.

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