The INT function in Excel returns the integer portion of a number. In other words, it rounds a number down to the nearest whole number. The INT function is useful for a variety of purposes, including:

• Determining how many times a value occurs in a data set
• Calculating the average of a range of values
• Finding the largest or smallest value in a data set

To use the INT function, enter =INT(number) into a cell. The number can be entered as a cell reference, as a literal value, or as the result of another formula or function. For example, if cell A1 contains the value 3.14, then =INT(A1) will return 3.

Examples

The following examples show how the INT function can be used in Excel.

Determining How Many Times a Value Occurs in a Data Set

Suppose you have a list of student scores in column A and you want to know how many students scored below 50. To do this, you can use the INT function to round down each score to the nearest whole number and then count how many cells contain the value 49 or less.

Note:
If any cells in column A contain text or empty cells, those values will be ignored by the COUNTIF function.

=COUNTIF(A:A,"<=49")  // Returns 3

Calculating the Average of a Range of Values

Another common use for the INT function is calculating averages. This is because when you average a range of numbers, each number is weighted equally regardless of its position in the range (unlike with median and mode). Therefore, you can use INT to round each number down to the nearest whole number before averaging.

=AVERAGE(INT(A1:A10))  // Returns 7

Finding the Largest or Smallest Value in a Data Set

You can also use INT to find extreme values (i.e., the largest or smallest value) in a data set. This is because when you sort numbers from largest to smallest (or vice versa), numbers with different decimal places will still be sorted correctly.

=MAX(INT(A1:A10))  // Returns 9

=MIN(INT(A1:A10))  // Returns 1