A to Z of Excel Functions: The QUOTIENT Function

Welcome back to our regular A to Z of Excel Functions blog.  Today, we look at the QUOTIENT function.

The QUOTIENT function

This function returns the integer portion of a division and should be used when you wish to discard the remainder of a division.  This is not the same as the INT function which rounds a number down to the nearest integer.  QUOTIENT rounds towards zero, viz.

If you want to divide numerical values, you should use the "/" operator as there isn't a DIVIDE function in Excel (although there is in DAX).  For example, to divide 5 by 2, you would type =5/2 into a cell, which returns 2.5.  The QUOTIENT function for these same numbers, =QUOTIENT(5,2), returns 2 since QUOTIENT doesn't return a remainder.

QUOTIENT employs the following syntax to operate:

The QUOTIENTfunction has the following arguments:

• numerator: this is required and represents the dividend
• denominator: this is also required and denotes the divisor.

It should be noted that if either argument is non-numerical, QUOTIENT returns the #NUM! error value. 

Please see my example below:

We’ll continue our A to Z of Excel Functions soon.  Keep checking back – there’s a new blog post every other business day.

A full page of the function articles can be found here.