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Excel offers 2 functions related to integer extraction: QUOTIENT, INT. Many individuals confuse these functions, but understanding the essence of each is crucial for precise usage. In this article, Mytour will provide further clarification on these functions.
1. What is an Integer? Related Issues.
Integers are numbers that include positive integers (1, 2, 3,...), negative integers (−1, −2, −3,...), and zero.
Rational Numbers are real numbers that can be represented as fractions (quotients) a/b, where a and b are integers with b ≠ 0. Rational numbers can be finite decimal or repeating decimal.
Irrational Numbers are real numbers that are not rational numbers, meaning they cannot be represented as a ratio a/b (where a and b are integers).
Every real number (including both rational and irrational numbers) can be written as:
x = n + z
where: n is an integer
0 ≤ z ≤ 1
Integer part is the largest integer not exceeding it. The notation for the integer part is [x], where x is a real number.
Decimal part of a real number is determined by subtracting its integer part. The notation for the decimal part is {x}, where x is a real number.
Many individuals loosely understand the integer part as the part before the decimal point and the decimal part as the part after the decimal point, but this holds true only when dealing with positive real numbers and will be incorrect for negative real numbers. For instance:
9.4 is a positive real number, where 9 is the integer part and 4 is the decimal part.
However, for -9.4, the part before the decimal point, -9, is not the integer part because -9 > -9.4.
In this scenario, -9.4 = -10 + 0.6 where -10 is the integer part of -9.4.
2. Excel's Integer Extraction Function
Let's dive into an example from the table below:
Here, we have a and b as integers with b not equal to 0. The difference of a and b is rational numbers, but what we are concerned about here are numbers with both integer and decimal parts.
The 'integer extraction' results of QUOTIENT and INT will be the same if the number is positive and different if it's negative.
Based on the theory of integer extraction, we can see that the INT function is actually the one that accurately extracts the integer part, while the QUOTIENT function only extracts the part before the decimal point.
2.1. Using the INT function for Integer Extraction
The INT function for integer extraction follows this formula:
=INT(number to extract integer)
The number to be extracted can be a specific value or a cell address.
Note: The INT function only accepts numerical data (and only accepts one number). Therefore, when providing data for INT with two or more numbers, you need to insert operators. For example:
=INT(7/3)
2.2. Using the QUOTIENT function to extract the part before the decimal point
The formula for the QUOTIENT function is:
=QUOTIENT(dividend, divisor)
Where the divisor must always be non-zero.
Unlike the INT function, the QUOTIENT function does not require us to separately calculate a division operation because it performs the division itself.
3. Real-life Examples
The company Mytour sends employees on business trips on various occasions. The finance department needs to calculate the number of weeks and days stayed at the hotel to reimburse employees.
Data provided includes check-in and check-out dates at the hotel along with the price list for different room types.
For the Week Count, we can use the INT function for calculation.
The calculation scheme here involves determining the number of days, then dividing by 7 to calculate the number of weeks. However, hotel stays may not always be in whole weeks because they can be odd days, so we only take the integer part of the result.
Therefore, the calculation function is given as:
=INT((Departure Date – Arrival Date)/7))
This concludes the article on the INT function in Excel, thank you for following Mytour. Wishing you successful implementation!
