Trunc Function in Excel

What this does

TRUNC removes digits rather than rounding them: it simply cuts the number at the requested precision and discards the rest. Because the cut is toward zero, negatives keep their integer part unchanged — TRUNC(-9.99) is -9, whereas INT(-9.99) is -10. That difference is the whole reason both functions exist. The second argument is optional and defaults to 0; supply 2 to keep cents without rounding them, or a negative value to strip digits to the left of the decimal point. It is the honest choice when a fractional part is meaningless rather than approximate — a partial day, a partial licence, a partial person. Most people learn this as a sequence of clicks and forget it by next week; learning it as a pattern instead is what lets you apply it to the next, slightly different version of the problem without starting from scratch. That is the difference this page is trying to make. The difference between a quick fix and a sheet you can trust is the extra minute you spend validating “trunc function in excel”. Start on a copy or a tiny sample, keep the affected formula visible, and compare the result with the tool above before you touch the real workbook. When a formula is involved, keep the inputs labelled beside it, reference cells instead of typing values, and apply number formatting only after the result checks out. The point is a calculation you can defend to a CFO or an auditor, but the practical win is that someone else can open the file and understand what happened without asking you.

A worked example

Splitting a timestamp in A2 into its parts, =TRUNC(A2) returns the date with the time removed, because Excel stores the time as the fractional half of the number. Reporting complete years of service, =TRUNC(7.92) returns 7. Keeping two decimals without rounding a rate up, =TRUNC(0.16789, 2) returns 0.16. TRUNC is the right tool when a fraction is not a rounding question but noise to be discarded — dates hiding a time, whole units, complete periods. One habit worth forming early: name the cells that hold your inputs, so the formula reads in plain language instead of a string of cell addresses. A reviewer — or you in three months — can then follow the logic without decoding what B7 and D2 were supposed to mean, which is most of what makes a sheet maintainable.

In Google Sheets

Everything above works in Google Sheets too. Excel and Sheets share the formula syntax used here; only the surrounding menus are arranged differently. That portability is deliberate — learn it once and it follows you between the two tools and across Windows and Mac. Keep this page bookmarked for the next time the same question comes up. Better still, repeat the steps once in your own workbook — doing it yourself is what turns a copied answer into something you remember. Here is the takeaway for “trunc function in excel”: copy the answer if you are busy, but if you have a spare few minutes, rebuild the example in Excel yourself with the tool above open beside it. That single pass — type it, run it, watch the result move when you change an input — is what turns a formula you found into a technique you trust. Keep your inputs labelled and referenced, never hard-coded, and the same sheet stays correct and auditable as it grows. Done that way, you will not need to look this up again, and you will be the person others ask.

Common mistakes

• Assuming TRUNC and INT agree — they differ on every negative number with a fractional part.
• Truncating money in a model where the cents matter; TRUNC silently discards value rather than rounding it fairly.
• Using TRUNC to remove a time from a date and then leaving the cell in General format, which shows the date serial number instead of the date.

Frequently asked questions