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How to find the mode for text value from a list/column in Excel?

Author: Kelly Last Modified: 2023-11-17

As you know, we can apply the MODE function to quickly find out the most frequent number from a specified range in Excel. However, this MODE function does not work with text values. Please do not worry! This article will share two easy methods to find the mode for text values from a list or a column easily in Excel.


Find the mode for text values from a list/column with formula

This method will introduce an array formula to find the mode for text values (the most frequent text value) in a list in Excel. Please do as follows:

Select a blank cell you will place the most frequent value into, type the formula below, and then press the Ctrl + Shift + Enter keys.

=INDEX(A2:A20,MODE(MATCH(A2:A20,A2:A20,0)))
Tip: A2:A20 refers to the range from which you want to determine the most frequent (mode) text value. You should replace A2:A20 with the actual range of your data containing the text values to be analyzed.

Now the most frequent (mode for) text value has been found and returned into the selected cell. See screenshot:

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Find the mode for text values from a list /column with Kutools for Excel

If you have Kutools for Excel installed, you can leverage the ready-to-use Find most common value formula in its Formula Helper suite to effortlessly identify the most frequent (mode for) text values from a list, bypassing the need to memorize any Excel formulas.

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  1. Select a blank cell where you will place the most frequent (mode for) text value.
  2. Select Kutools > Formula Helper > Lookup & Reference > Find most common value.
  3. In the opening Formula Helper dialog box, please specify the list where you will look for the most frequent text value into the Range box, and click the Ok button.

By following the steps above, the most frequent (mode for) text value will be returned to the selected cell.

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Demo: Find the mode for text values from a list /column


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Comments (14)
Rated 5 out of 5 · 1 ratings
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Hi, Can I return the most common text and add another criteria. So if there is for example another row that said 'first language of country' can I develop a formula to return the most popular given this new criteria?
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Hi, in that case, you can use this formula: =INDEX(A2:A20, MODE(IF(B2:B20="first language of country", MATCH(A2:A20, A2:A20, 0))))
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Thanks so much! How about if I want to go on to find the 2nd and 3rd most popular?
Also, can I make this formula work if there is only 1 value in the data-set or if there is a tie?
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Is there a way to get multiple modes with text? I have tried embedding the MODE.MULTI function in the place of MODE and it doesn't return more than one still.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Hi there,

Yes, you can use MODE.MULTI function.

If you are using Excel 2019 or earlier versions, 1. you can select a list of blank cells, 2. and then type in the formula =INDEX(range,MODE.MULT(MATCH(range,range,0))). 3. Then, press Ctrl + Shift + Enter keys to get the result.

If you are using Microsoft 365 or Excel 2021, you just need to type in the formula =INDEX(range,MODE.MULT(MATCH(range,range,0))) and then press Enter.

Amanda
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Didn't work on Google sheet
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Hi there, sorry that the tutorial is specially written for Excel. 😅
Amanda
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Thanks! It worked! I was wondering.. is there a way to find the second most frequent observation? the third? and so on...
Rated 5 out of 5
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
this formula will not work in Excel365, please help.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Hi kev92569,
I just tried the formula on Excel 365, it worked well. Did you change the three ranges (A2:A20) in the formula to your real range? =INDEX(A2:A20,MODE(MATCH(A2:A20,A2:A20,0)))
Amanda
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Yes I did and it either gave an error or didn't return a text result when I needed it to.  I figured out a different formula that seems to work.
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
Well, that's good for you. Can you also share the different formula here in case the one in the article does not work for other users?
This comment was minimized by the moderator on the site
the names list in text format, text to column does not work. i tried bunch of stuff. please help.
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