How to average top or bottom 3 values in Excel?
In Excel, we can quickly and easily calculate the average of a range of cells by using the AVERAGE function. Sometimes, we need to average the largest or smallest n values in a list of cells in random order, how can we get the average of the top or bottom n values in Excel?
Average top or bottom 3 values with formulas
Average excluding top or bottom 3 values with formulas
Average excluding top and bottom 3 values with formula
Average top or bottom 3 values with formulas
In this example, I will calculate the average of largest or smallest 3 numbers, the following formulas may do you a favor.
To get the average of the largest 3 values, please enter this formula:
=AVERAGE(LARGE(A2:A20,ROW(1:3))), (A2:A10 is the data range that you want to average, 1:3 indicates the number of the largest values you need, if you want to average the largest 10 values, you just need to change it as 1:10. ), and then press Ctrl + Shift + Enter keys together to get the correct result. See screenshot:
To average the smallest 3 values, you can apply this formula: =AVERAGE(SMALL(A2:A20,ROW(1:3))) (also, if you want to average the smallest 10 values, change 1:3 to 1:10), and remember to press Ctrl + Shift + Enter keys to return the right result.
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Average excluding top or bottom 3 values with formulas
Sometimes, you may need to calculate the average of other numbers excluding the top or bottom 3 values, this also can be solved with formulas in Excel.
To calculate the average numbers which exclude the top 3 values, please type this formula:
=AVERAGE(IF(A2:A20<LARGE(A2:A20,3),A2:A20))( A2:A10 is the data range that you want to average, the number 3 indicates the number of the largest value, if you want to average ignoring the largest 10 values, you just need to change 3 to 10), and then press Ctrl + Shift + Enter keys to get the result you want.
To average the numbers excluding the bottom 3 values, please type this formula: =AVERAGE(IF(A2:A20>SMALL(A2:A20,3),A2:A20)) (the number 3 indicates the number of the smallest value, if you want to average ignoring the smallest10 values, you just need to change 3 to 10), and should press Ctrl + Shift + Enter keys after entering this formula.
Average excluding top and bottom 3 values with formula
If you need to average the numbers which exclude both the top and bottom 3 values at the meanwhile, I can also talk about a formula for you.
Enter this formula: =AVERAGE(IF(A2:A20>SMALL(A2:A20,3),IF(A2:A20<LARGE(A2:A20,3),A2:A20))), (A2:A10 is the data range that you want to average, the number 3 indicates the number of the largest and smallest value, if you want to average ignoring the largest and smallest 10 values, you just need to change it to 10), then press Ctrl + Shift + Enter keys together to return the result.
Related articles:
How to average last 5 values of a column as new numbers entering?
How to average every 5 rows or columns in Excel?
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