Max limit of decimal places in a value?

Kelly Moore

I have a sheet where a cell needs to have a value greater than five decimal places. Using the increase/decrease decimal tool will not increase the decimal places past five places. Using ROUND function also will not increase the number of places.

I searched for documentation on decimal place limitations but was unable to find any restrictions. Is five the decimal limit?

My current sheet: 0.00005 My desired value: 0.000048

@Genevieve P @Genevieve P - this question might be one for you.

Thanks,

Kelly

Genevieve P.

Hi @KDM

Yes, the Smartsheet maximum for decimals is currently 5 decimal places.

I actually found a different post where @Paul Newcome came up with a way of keeping the longer decimal by changing the value into a text string:

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/70181/long-decimals-7-digit-decimals

How is your data populated, would this work for you?

Cheers,

Genevieve

Paul Newcome

I feel like this question was asked once before some time ago, but I don't remember the outcome. Commenting to follow...

Kelly Moore

You're right Paul (as usual). 😉

I just found the other post. Thanks for pointing me in that direction.

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/74522/decimal-places-in-a-cell

Sorry Paul but it's not letting me mark the question as answered.

Kelly

Genevieve P.

Hi @KDM

Yes, the Smartsheet maximum for decimals is currently 5 decimal places.

I actually found a different post where @Paul Newcome came up with a way of keeping the longer decimal by changing the value into a text string:

https://community.smartsheet.com/discussion/70181/long-decimals-7-digit-decimals

How is your data populated, would this work for you?

Cheers,

Genevieve

Paul Newcome

@Genevieve P Thanks! I had completely forgotten about that.

Mike Wilday

Do be aware that if you intend to do any math on that number that you will have to convert it back to a number, and that will truncate it. 😀

Paul Newcome

Although it does store as a text value, so using it as a number won't work. I remember testing it once before (but again don't remember the outcome) with using the VALUE function on these extended number strings in various calculations to see if it can actually calculate at least on the back-end. I am going to have to retest at some point and will update when I am able.

Kelly Moore

The original data is a manually entered weight value - one of many- so we need to keep the unit of measure constant to prevent the data entry errors. It would be a lot easier if I could just swap to a smaller unit of measure and not need the decimal places. Further calculation is done on the weight so I'll have to play to see how many helper columns would be needed to eventually get it back to VALUE() and how late in my process steps could I delay converting to text and back again to value. I will try, and I really appreciate you taking the trouble to track this post down and @Paul Newcome for the original post. and for the continued comments from smartsheet experts. Thanks to everyone (and weird that now the 'Yes the question is answered' shows below Paul's post above)

cheers,

Kelly

Paul Newcome

@KDM It may not require too many helper columns depending on the actual calculations that you need to run. It may be something as simple as VALUE([Column Name]@row). Of course it is NEVER that simple, but one can hope. Haha. I'll keep everyone posted.

Zaragoza

I am storing LAT and LON info and it is useless with 5 decimals unfortunately. I need at least 7 decimals.