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How to find highest value in a row and return column header in Excel?

Author Xiaoyang Last modified

In this article, I will talk about how to return the column header of the largest value in a row in Excel. For Example, I have the following data range, column A is the year, and column B to F are populated the order numbers from Jan to May. And now, I want to get the month name of the largest value in each row.

find highest value in a row and return column header

Find highest value in a row and return column header with formula

arrow blue right bubble Find highest value in a row and return column header with formula

To retrieve the column header of the largest value in a row, you can apply a combination of INDEX, MATCH and MAX functions to get the result. Please do as follows:

1. Enter this formula into a blank cell you need: =INDEX($B$1:$F$1,0,MATCH(MAX($B2:$F2),$B2:$F2,0)), and then press Enter key to get the month name which matches the largest value in a row. See screenshot:

enter a formula to find highest value in a row and return column header

2. And then select the cell and drag the fill handle over to the range that you want to contain this formula, see screenshot:

drag and fill the formula to other cells

Note: In the above formula: B1: F1 is the headers row that you want to return, B2: F2 is the data range which contains the largest value you want to find.

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