CEILING Formula in Excel

 

What Does It Do ?

This function rounds a number up to the nearest multiple specified by the user.

Syntax

=CEILING(ValueToRound,MultipleToRoundUpTo)

The ValueToRound can be a cell address or a calculation.

Formatting

No special formatting is needed.

Example 1

The following table was used by a estate agent renting holiday apartments.

The properties being rented are only available on a weekly basis.

When the customer supplies the number of days required in the property the =CEILING() function rounds it up by a multiple of 7 to calculate the number of full weeks to be billed.

Example 2

The following table was used by a builders merchant delivering products to a construction site.

The merchant needs to hire trucks to move each product.

Each product needs a particular type of truck of a fixed capacity.

 

Table 1 calculates the number of trucks required by dividing the Units To Be Moved by the Capacity of the truck.

This results of the division are not whole numbers, and the builder cannot hire just part of a truck.

Table 2 shows how the =CEILING() function has been used to round up the result of the division to a whole number, and thus given the exact amount of trucks needed.