How to Use Excel's FIXED Function

One of the benefits of Microsoft Office Excel is its ability to customize and homogenize data. If you want to produce a professional report with consistent formatting throughout, there are several formulas in Excel that can help.

Instructions

1. Note what the FIXED function does. FIXED rounds a figure to a specified number of decimals and returns the result as text with or without commas.

2. Complete the correct syntax of the FIXED function, which is: = FIXED (Number, Decimals, No_Commas). Number is the hard number or cell reference that you want to round and convert to text. "Decimals" is optional and represents the number of decimals you want displayed to the right of the decimal point. If left blank, the default is 2. If you enter a negative value in Decimals, the number rounds to the left of the decimal point. "No_Commas" is also optional. The default value is FALSE if left blank, which means Excel displays commas in four digit or higher numbers. If you enter TRUE, Excel omits the commas.

3. Use the FIXED function. You may enter hard numbers or cell references such as C4. Say cell C4 contains the number 1516.2358262. If you enter = FIXED (C4, 3, TRUE), Excel returns "1516.236." Similarly, = FIXED (C4, 4) returns "1,516.2358." Quotation marks are purposely included. Remember, this formula purposely converts numbers to text, and quotes must surround text strings in Excel.