One of the most outstanding aspects of this Microsoft program is that it has a large number of functions that will allow you to carry out different types of activities, especially those that are related to numerical data, as they are math or computational operations.
In this case we are going to teach you a little more about which are the MIN and MAX functions, two very important tools when working in the program since each one will allow you know what are the maximum and minimum values of your table.
Accordingly, here we will explain a little more about how you can start use each of them, So as the exact operation of each. For this, follow in detail everything that we will teach you in the post below.
Index:
What are the MIN and MAX functions and when do I need to apply them in Excel?
These two functions are very necessary when work in excel spreadsheet, and is that they have as main function help you find certain values.
In the case of the MIN function will provide you the minimum value of a list of values, excluding the text and logical values.
As a function argument you can enter the numbers to be evaluated or simply a range or the reference of a cell containing the numerical values.
In this type of function you can consider the following aspects that we name below:
- Are taken into account logical values and written number texts directly in the list of arguments.
- The arguments can be as much names, matrices, number or references containing numbers.
- In the case that the arguments do not contain any number then the MIN function returns 0.
- In the case that the argument is a reference or an array, it will be used only the numbers that are contained either in the matrix or reference. What they are empty cells, texts contained in the reference or matrix and logical values will be ignored.
- If they exist error or text values that they cannot translating to numbers will simply generate an error.
Taking all these aspects into account, here is an example of what the MIN function is so that you can understand it a little better:
- In the following table you can see a variety of articles where you want to get what is the minimum value, if it is done manually it may be a long and tedious procedure, especially if there is a lot of values. The objective of the MIN function is to simplify all these homework and save time so that the user can work more efficiently.
- How can see in the picture each of the articles has selected the minimum value of the selected row.
While MAX function it will allow you to obtain the maximum value of a set of values either a list of number located in one or more ranges of the spreadsheet. In this way, the function allows you to return the maximum value of a set of values.
Regarding this function, the following aspects can be mentioned to take into account:
- The arguments can be numbers, matrices, names, or references that contain numbers.
- In the event that the argument is a matrix or a reference, only the numbers contained in them will be used. Therefore, all empty cells, logical values and texts will be ignored.
- Keep in mind logical values and textual representations of numbers written in the argument list.
- If for some reason the argument does not contain numbers the MAX function returns 0.
- Arguments that are values of error or text that they cannot translate to text will cause an error in the result.
In accordance with all this, here is an example of this tool so that you can better understand how it works:
- In the following table we are going to present you a data series where you only want to get the MAX value of each row. If done manually it can end up being a long and tedious process of making. For this you can use what is MAX function which is responsible for facilitating all this operation.
- As seen in the image, cEach one of the rows has its maximum value selected, this could be achieved by applying the MAX tool. Therefore, putting these two functions will allow you to work more easily and in a much faster way, thus saving time.
Learn step by step how to perfectly apply the MIN and MAX functions in Excel
Bearing in mind all the aforementioned, now we will explain step by step how you can start applying these two functions in each of your Excel tables.
Keep in mind that this procedure is very simple to perform, follow each of the methods that we will indicate below:
Minima
To apply this function in your Excel spreadsheet you must perform the following steps:
- The first thing you should do is create your data table in Excel. In this case, a table with the names of the sellers and the amount of money they got for sales in the months of January, February and March.
- The first piece of information you need to have is the minimum value for the month of January, in this case the following should be applied formula: = MIN (B2: B9).
- As can be seen the formula returns the result of $ 304, this being the lowest value of said column.
- Now if you want to know the lowest value of the quarter you can use the following formula: = MIN (B2: D9).
- In this case the range of the B2 value: D9 covers what they are the columns of the three months. As you can see when apply the formula its thrown the result of $ 112, being this the minimum sale value of the three months.
- In case you want to know the minimum sale value from some of the specific sellers you just have to put the range of the cells of the months of that seller. In the case of Ruth sit would be the next function: = MIN (B8: D8).
- As you can see in image, it is automatically shown here which was Ruth’s lowest sale in the first quarter of the year.
Maximum
In the case of MAX function is applied so similar to MIN, but this time it is done with the aim of achieving the maximum values in the table. In this case it is an employee table but this time with sales profits from the first four months of the year.
Therefore, the first thing will be to know that seller made more profit in February, For this, the following formula must be applied: = MAX (D3: D10).
In case you want to know what was the seller who sold the most in the first four months of the year then the following formula should be applied: = MAX (C3: F10).
In this way you can know what are the maximum values of your work table in Word, this will allow you save you a lot of time when you need to know certain values and you have a very extensive data table.