MICROSOFTOffice Excel.

2007
Intermediate Skills

Exploring Excel Functions

Statistical Functions

LearnIT Instruction 2008

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Microsoft Office Excel 2007 - Intermediate Skills

LearnIT INSTRUCTION - 2008 |

STATISTICAL Functions
The Statistical functions chosen for this module are quite useful in a range of situations. Excel also contains advanced
statistical functions that are not explained here. All statistical functions are found in:
Formulas > Function Library > More functions > Statistical
The AVERAGE function you may have seen before. It can also be found in the drop-down list of the AutoSum button
and it is used in a very similar way to the SUM function. It takes a range numbers and has the form:
=AVERAGE(Number1,Number2,...)

The average of 2,3,3,5,7 and 10 is 30 divided by 6 which is 5

These numbers could also be expressed as a cell range like A1:A8. The average adds all the values and then divides
them by the number of values.
The MEDIAN function returns a number that is in the middle of a set of numbers, halfway between the highest and
the lowest value.
=MEDIAN(Number1,Number2,...) The median of 2,3,3,5,7 and 10 is 4
The MODE function returns the number that appears most frequently in a set of numbers. If each number only
appears a single time, it results in an error. This is shown by a #N/A in the cell the function is used in, and it means that
there isnt a solution.
=MODE(Number1,Number2,...) The mode of 2,3,3,5,7 and 10 is 3

1. Starting at the top of column A enter the numbers 2, 16, 11, 4, 16

2. Select cells A1:A6 and click on the arrow symbol in the AutoSum button. Choose Average. The result
will appear in A6.
3. Select cell C1 and go to Formulas > Function Library > More functions > Statistical > MEDIAN
4. In Number1 enter A1:A5 and click OK. Remember that you can enter that range of cells by clicking on
the actual cells rather than typing it in.
5. Select cell C2 and go to Formulas > Function Library > More functions > Statistical > MODE
6. In Number1 again enter A1:A5 and click OK
7. If you would like to see the error in the MODE function, change the first 16 to 15.

MIN and MAX functions

The MIN and MAX functions are also found in the AutoSum drop-down menu. The MIN function returns the smallest
number in a set and the MAX function returns the largest value.
=MIN(Number1, Number2,...)
=MAX(Number1, Number2,...)

1. Select cell C3 and click on the arrow symbol in the AutoSum button. Choose MAX. The formula entered
in C3 will be =MAX(A3:B3). Change it to =MAX(A1:A5)
2. Select cell C4 and go to Formulas > Function Library > More functions > Statistical > MIN.
3. In Number1 enter A1:A5 and click OK.

LearnIT INSTRUCTION - EXPLORING EXCEL FUNCTIONS