Apple Numbers DOLLAR Function: Currency Text and Rounding
Create currency display text with explicit rounding, regional context and a complete line-item versus total rounding example.
Verification status: See the evidence and test scope described in this guide. How formula examples are checked
DOLLAR turns a number into currency-formatted text. It is useful for a display label, message or export field, but its returned string should be kept separate from the numeric amount used for arithmetic. The name does not mean that every document produces US dollars: the currency appearance follows the applicable language and region.
Availability and evidence
The official DOLLAR reference was retrieved October 15, 2026. It currently documents this function for Apple Numbers. The original introduction release and last functioning version are unknown from the checked sources. Current documentation is not a final supported-version endpoint or proof of identical behavior on every older client.
No native Apple Numbers session was executed. Numeric examples are independently calculated controls; locale-dependent examples retain their stated context. Apple’s shared function help is not a test of every Mac, iPhone, iPad or iCloud build.
Syntax and rounding places
DOLLAR(num, places)
num supplies the number. Optional places selects rounding precision: positive values retain decimal places, zero rounds to a whole unit, and negative values round to tens, hundreds and so on. Apple’s omitted-places examples show two decimal places; the argument description itself does not separately spell out a numeric default. Supply places explicitly when precision matters.
The documented rule is ordinary arithmetic rounding, including rounding upward when the first discarded digit is at least five. The controls below use exact positive decimal inputs, avoiding an unsupported claim about every negative half-way or binary-floating-point boundary.
Reproducible display fixture
Use an English (United States) currency context matching Apple’s dollar-style examples. Enter these numbers and requested places into A2:B7. Put =DOLLAR(A2,B2) in C2 and fill down.
| Row | A: Numeric amount | B: Places | Independent expected text in this context |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 2323.124 | 2 | $2,323.12 |
| 3 | 2323.125 | 2 | $2,323.13 |
| 4 | 99.554 | 0 | $100 |
| 5 | 12 | 3 | $12.000 |
| 6 | -12 | 3 | ($12.000) |
| 7 | 123 | -1 | $120 |
The negative row follows Apple’s explicit negative-format example. Different regional settings can change the symbol, separators and negative presentation; these exact strings are contextual targets, not universal output text.
Example: reporting in whole hundreds
For amounts 1249, 1250 and 1299, =DOLLAR(A2,-2) and its filled-down equivalents have numeric rounding targets 1200, 1300 and 1300. In the same US context, the corresponding display strings are $1,200, $1,300 and $1,300.
Rounding to hundreds is different from showing two decimal places. The minus sign belongs to the precision argument, not to the amount. A positive amount remains positive after this rounding.
Advanced: round line items or round the total?
Put 1.234, 2.344 and 3.454 into A10:A12. Currency text at two places displays $1.23, $2.34 and $3.45. Those three displayed rounded amounts add arithmetically to 7.02.
The underlying numeric amounts instead total 7.032. Formatting that total to two places produces $7.03. This one-cent difference is a rounding-policy difference, not evidence that the function randomly changed an amount.
Keep the raw numeric column, determine whether the reporting rule rounds each line or only the final total, and then produce the text column. Do not feed the currency strings back into a calculation and assume all locales parse them identically.
Advanced: keep presentation and currency identity separate
A value of 2500 formatted with a dollar symbol does not establish that an exchange-rate conversion occurred. If an input amount is denominated in euros, making it look like dollars would change its label without changing its purchasing-power basis.
For an export, retain separate fields for numeric amount, currency identifier and formatted display. For example, a fictional record can retain amount 2500, currency USD, and display $2,500.00. That arrangement makes the meaning inspectable without requiring a downstream system to infer the currency from punctuation alone.
Errors and troubleshooting
If a formula displays an unexpected symbol, check the document and system language/region context before changing the number. Apple identifies System Preferences for macOS 12 and earlier, System Settings for macOS 13 and later, and Settings on iOS/iPadOS; these names describe the settings location, not this function’s introduction version.
If a sum or comparison behaves unexpectedly, inspect whether it uses the original number or the returned text. If precision is inconsistent across rows, examine the places references and use explicit integer precision controls.
The dedicated entry does not provide an exhaustive error-code table for text inputs, fractional places, invalid references or extreme magnitudes. Those cases were not native-tested, and another spreadsheet’s coercion rules should not be treated as Numbers results.