Excel Keyboard Shortcut to Remove Decimal Places

In Excel for Microsoft 365 on Windows, select the cells and press Alt+H, 9 to show one fewer decimal place; repeat until no decimal places are displayed. This changes the number format, not the value stored in the cell, so use a rounding formula if you need to change the underlying number.

The Windows shortcut and how to use it

The shortcut is a sequence of ribbon KeyTips, not three keys to hold down at once. Select one cell or a range, press and release Alt, press H, then press 9. Each press of 9 decreases the displayed decimal places by one. For example, if a selected cell displays 18.726 with three decimal places, one press displays 18.73, another displays 18.7, and a third displays 19.

Select the cells whose decimal display you want to change. You can select a single cell, a rectangular range, or multiple nonadjacent ranges.
Press Alt, release it, then press H to open the Home tab KeyTips.
Press 9 once for each decimal place you want to remove from the display.

The command is called Decrease Decimal in the Home tab’s Number group. It reduces the displayed decimal-place count; it does not delete digits from the cell’s stored value. If you press it more times than there are displayed places, the display does not become a more precise value. The exact appearance can depend on the cell’s number format and the width of the column.

What changes—and what stays stored

Excel keeps a numeric value separately from its number format. Decrease Decimal changes how many digits appear after the decimal separator, while the underlying number normally remains unchanged. Suppose a cell contains 18.7264. If its format initially shows three decimal places, the screen shows 18.726. Decreasing the display to two places shows 18.73, and decreasing it to zero shows 19. The stored value is still 18.7264, not 19.

This distinction matters because calculations generally use the stored value. If a total adds a cell that displays 19 to another number, Excel uses the cell’s actual numeric value, 18.7264, unless the calculation or workbook settings make it behave otherwise. A displayed number is therefore not always the exact number used in a calculation. Formatting is useful when a report needs a cleaner appearance, but it is not a substitute for deliberate rounding in a calculation.

The same idea applies to percentages, dates, and many other number formats: a format controls presentation, while the value remains numeric. For instance, a percentage may display as 25% while its stored value is 0.25. Decimal-place buttons adjust the display in the applicable number format; they are not commands to erase the fractional part of every value.

Use the ribbon or change the format directly

If you cannot remember the shortcut, select the cells and choose Home > Decrease Decimal in Excel for Windows. The button is in the Number group and typically shows a left-pointing arrow beside decimal digits. Each click reduces the displayed decimal places by one. The adjacent Increase Decimal button adds a displayed place again, which can help you undo an accidental formatting change.

For a specific setting, open the Format Cells dialog with Ctrl+1 on Windows, choose the Number tab, select a category such as Number, Currency, or Percentage, and set Decimal places to the count you want. This is useful when you want a consistent result rather than adjusting the format one step at a time. In the dialog, the category matters: changing a Currency format to Number, for example, can remove the currency symbol as well as affect decimal display.

On Excel for Mac, the Windows sequence Alt+H, 9 is not the equivalent shortcut. Select the cells and use the Decrease Decimal command on the Home tab, or open Format Cells to set a precise count. On Excel for the web, use the ribbon command if the Windows KeyTip sequence is unavailable or intercepted by the browser. Ribbon layouts and keyboard access can vary by platform, so the command name is the reliable thing to look for.

Choose between hiding decimals and rounding values

Use Decrease Decimal when you only want a cleaner display and still need the original precision for later calculations. Use a rounding operation when a calculation must produce a value at a defined precision. For example, an invoice may require each line amount to be rounded to cents before it is added, while a scientific worksheet may need to retain extra digits internally even if a summary displays only two.

Display-only change: Apply Decrease Decimal or set the number format. This preserves the stored number.
Rounded result in a calculation: Use an appropriate rounding formula in a separate result cell. This produces a rounded numeric result for downstream calculations.
Permanent data change: If you replace original values with rounded values, keep a backup or a copy of the source column first. Formatting alone does not perform this replacement.

Do not confuse the shortcut with Ctrl+Shift+~ on Windows. That key combination applies the General number format; it does not mean round to zero decimal places. General can display a varying number of digits, and it may remove other formatting such as currency symbols or percentage presentation. Likewise, Ctrl+Shift+! applies a number format with two decimal places, rather than removing decimals.

Examples of what you will see

Imagine a price cell contains 6.478 and is formatted to show three decimal places. After one Decrease Decimal action, it displays 6.48; after another, 6.5; after another, 6. The displayed value rounds to the chosen number of places for presentation, but the cell still holds 6.478. If another cell calculates a sum from that price, the calculation uses the underlying value unless the formula itself rounds it.

A value such as 2.5 may display as 3 when reduced to zero decimal places, while 2.4 may display as 2. This is a display effect, not a change to either stored value. It explains why a column of displayed whole numbers might appear not to add up exactly to a total calculated from the original precise values. The discrepancy can be legitimate: the visible figures have less precision than the numbers used in the calculation.

For a whole column of report figures, select the relevant range rather than changing each cell separately. If the selection includes cells with different formats, inspect the results: number formats can vary within a range, and a single formatting action may make those cells more uniform than intended. Applying the shortcut to a whole worksheet can also affect dates, percentages, or other specially formatted cells, so select only the data that should share the same display rule.

Common problems and how to fix them

The shortcut seems not to work: Enter the keys in sequence—Alt, H, then 9—rather than holding them all together. Check that Excel has focus and that you have selected cells in the worksheet.
The cell still has digits after the decimal: Press the shortcut again, or use the Format Cells dialog to set Decimal places to 0. A number can have a different format from nearby cells.
The result looks rounded up or down: That is normal for a reduced decimal display. The command changes the visible precision, not the stored value.
The command has no useful effect on text: Numbers stored as text are not ordinary numeric values for number formatting. Check for a leading apostrophe, imported text, or an alignment pattern that suggests the entry is text, and convert it to a number if appropriate.
Other symbols or formatting change: Confirm the selected cells’ category in Format Cells. A format change can affect separators, symbols, or other presentation details as well as decimal places.

If a keyboard layout or device makes the KeyTips difficult to enter, use the ribbon button instead. In a workbook with important financial or measurement data, compare a few cells with the formula bar or a more precise format after changing the display. The formula bar can help reveal the stored value, although it is not a replacement for documenting the required calculation precision.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Excel shortcut to remove decimal places?
In Excel for Windows, select the cells and press Alt, then H, then 9. Repeat the sequence to reduce the displayed decimal places further. On Mac, use Home > Decrease Decimal because that Windows KeyTip sequence is not the equivalent Mac shortcut.

Does Decrease Decimal round the actual cell value?
No. It changes the number format so fewer decimal places are shown. Calculations normally continue to use the original stored value. Use a rounding calculation when the result itself must be rounded.

How do I show a number with no decimal places?
Select the cells and press Alt, H, 9 enough times to reach zero displayed places, or set Decimal places to 0 in Format Cells. Check that the cells have an appropriate number format before applying the change to a mixed range.

Why does a value change visually when I remove decimals?
Excel rounds the display to the number of places shown. A value such as 7.8 appears as 8 with zero decimal places, even though its stored value remains 7.8. That visual rounding does not by itself change calculations to use 8.

Can I remove decimals from every cell in a worksheet?
You can select a broad range and change its format, but doing so indiscriminately may affect dates, percentages, currency, and other data. Select only the relevant cells, or inspect the formats afterward, to avoid changing displays that should stay distinct.

Try it: the Date Difference Calculator: days, months, years and weekdays between two dates, with the DATEDIF formulas.

More in How-to basics

Sources: Function behaviour and menu paths: Microsoft Support documentation for Excel. Method & sources

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