Excel Fixed Function

Microsoft Excel Fixed Function

Basic Description

 

The Excel FIXED function rounds a supplied number to a specified number of decimal places and then converts this into text.

The format of the function is :

FIXED( number, [decimals], [no_commas] )

Where the arguments are as follows :

number	-	The number to be converted into a text string
[decimals]	-	An optional numerical argument which specifies the number of decimal places to be shown after the decimal point Note : - If [decimals] is omitted, it takes on the default value of 2 - If [decimals] is negative, the supplied number is rounded up to the left of the decimal point - If [decimals is a decimal (rather than an integer), it is truncated to an integer
[no_commas]	-	An optional logical argument which specifies if the returned text should separate thousands by commas. Possible values are : TRUE - Commas are not included in the resulting text FALSE - Commas are included in the resulting text If the [no_commas] argument is omitted, it takes on the default value of FALSE.

Fixed Function Examples

The spreadsheet below shows examples of use of the Excel Fixed Function. The spreadsheet on the left shows the format of the functions and the spreadsheet on the right shows the results.

Formulas:

Results:

Fixed Function Common Problem

Common Problem

Once a number has been converted, using the Excel Fixed function, it is stored in Excel as text. Therefore, it cannot be used in numeric calculations. 

If you want to be able to use the numbers in calculations, you may prefer to keep the values as numbers in Excel and just change the formatting into the required numeric format. To do this:

• Right click with the mouse, on the cell to be formatted
• Select the Format Cells ... option and ensure the Number tab is selected
• Under the Category heading, select the option Number
• From the options that appear on the right, specify the details of the formatting required
• Click OK