How to Find and Calculate Range in Excel

Mathematically, you calculate a range by subtracting the minimum value from the maximum value of a particular dataset. It represents the spread of values within a dataset and is useful for measuring variability – the larger the range, the more spread out and variable your data is.

Luckily, finding the range of a set of data is easy when using Excel functions. Here’s how to do it.

How to Find and Calculate Range in 3 Steps

The easiest way to find the range in Microsoft Excel is by using the MIN and MAX functions. The MIN function calculates the highest value in a set of data, while the MIN function calculates the smallest value.

First, ensure that your data is neatly organized in your worksheet for ease of analysis. Then, you can use the MIN and MAX functions as follows:

It’s possible to calculate the range of values inone shortcut stepby combining these functions in one cell. To do so, we’ll use our example where the dataset is contained in cells B2 to B15.

All you have to do is change the cell values to match your data.

How to Find a Conditional Range in Excel

If your set of data has a few outliers, it’s possible to calculate a conditional range that ignores the outliers. For instance, take a look at this example screenshot:

Almost all of the values are between 40 and 80, yet there are two around 1,000 and the two lowest values are close to 1. If you wanted to calculate the range but ignore those values, you would need to ignore values under 5 and over 900. This is where the MAXIFS and MINIFS functions come in.

MAXIFS adds a condition that ignores values over a certain number, while MINIFS ignores values lower than a certain number (with each condition separated by a comma).

So, for our example, the MAX function would become:

And the MIN function would become:

In this case, the total Excel formula for calculating the conditional range will be:

Note:The MAXIFS and MINIFS functions are only available in Excel 2019 and Microsoft Office 365, so if you’re using an older version, you will need to include the IF function separately. For example: =MAX(B2:B15)-MIN(IF(B2:B15>5,B2:B15)

Data Analysis Has Never Been Easier

Microsoft Excel is apowerful tool for analyzing data. With this tutorial, you can easily calculate the range of any dataset, even if you need to remove outliers.

Jake Harfield is an Australian freelance writer whose passion is finding out how different technologies work. He has written for several online publications, focusing on explaining what he has learned to help others with their tech problems. He’s an avid hiker and birder, and in his spare time you’ll find him in the Aussie bush listening to the birdsong.Read Jake’s Full Bio

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