Doing averages in excel

AVERAGE function

This article describes the formula syntax and usage of the AVERAGE function in Microsoft Excel.

Description

Returns the average (arithmetic mean) of the arguments. For example, if the range A1:A20 contains numbers, the formula = AVERAGE( A1:A20) returns the average of those numbers.

Syntax

The AVERAGE function syntax has the following arguments:

Number1 Required. The first number, cell reference, or range for which you want the average.

Number2, . Optional. Additional numbers, cell references or ranges for which you want the average, up to a maximum of 255.

Arguments can either be numbers or names, ranges, or cell references that contain numbers.

Logical values and text representations of numbers that you type directly into the list of arguments are not counted.

If a range or cell reference argument contains text, logical values, or empty cells, those values are ignored; however, cells with the value zero are included.

Arguments that are error values or text that cannot be translated into numbers cause errors.

If you want to include logical values and text representations of numbers in a reference as part of the calculation, use the AVERAGEA function.

If you want to calculate the average of only the values that meet certain criteria, use the AVERAGEIF function or the AVERAGEIFS function.

Note: The AVERAGE function measures central tendency, which is the location of the center of a group of numbers in a statistical distribution. The three most common measures of central tendency are:

Average, which is the arithmetic mean, and is calculated by adding a group of numbers and then dividing by the count of those numbers. For example, the average of 2, 3, 3, 5, 7, and 10 is 30 divided by 6, which is 5.

Median, which is the middle number of a group of numbers; that is, half the numbers have values that are greater than the median, and half the numbers have values that are less than the median. For example, the median of 2, 3, 3, 5, 7, and 10 is 4.

Mode, which is the most frequently occurring number in a group of numbers. For example, the mode of 2, 3, 3, 5, 7, and 10 is 3.

For a symmetrical distribution of a group of numbers, these three measures of central tendency are all the same. For a skewed distribution of a group of numbers, they can be different.

Tip: When you average cells, keep in mind the difference between empty cells and those containing the value zero, especially if you have cleared the Show a zero in cells that have a zero value check box in the Excel Options dialog box in the Excel desktop application. When this option is selected, empty cells are not counted, but zero values are.

To locate the Show a zero in cells that have a zero value check box:

On the File tab, click Options, and then, in the Advanced category, look under Display options for this worksheet.

Example

Copy the example data in the following table, and paste it in cell A1 of a new Excel worksheet. For formulas to show results, select them, press F2, and then press Enter. If you need to, you can adjust the column widths to see all the data.

Источник

Calculate the average of a group of numbers

Let’s say you want to find the average number of days to complete a tasks by different employees. Or, you want to calculate the average temperature on a particular day over a 10-year time span. There are several ways to calculate the average of a group of numbers.

The AVERAGE function measures central tendency, which is the location of the center of a group of numbers in a statistical distribution. The three most common measures of central tendency are:

Average This is the arithmetic mean, and is calculated by adding a group of numbers and then dividing by the count of those numbers. For example, the average of 2, 3, 3, 5, 7, and 10 is 30 divided by 6, which is 5.

Median The middle number of a group of numbers. Half the numbers have values that are greater than the median, and half the numbers have values that are less than the median. For example, the median of 2, 3, 3, 5, 7, and 10 is 4.

Mode The most frequently occurring number in a group of numbers. For example, the mode of 2, 3, 3, 5, 7, and 10 is 3.

For a symmetrical distribution of a group of numbers, these three measures of central tendency are all the same. In a skewed distribution of a group of numbers, they can be different.

Do the following:

Click a cell below, or to the right, of the numbers for which you want to find the average.

On the Home tab, in the Editing group, click the arrow next to AutoSum , click Average, and then press Enter.

To do this task, use the AVERAGE function. Copy the table below to a blank worksheet.

Averages all of numbers in list above (9.5)

Averages the top three and the last number in the list (7.5)

Averages the numbers in the list except those that contain zero, such as cell A6 (11.4)

To do this task, use the SUMPRODUCT and SUM functions. vThis example calculates the average price paid for a unit across three purchases, where each purchase is for a different number of units at a different price per unit.

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Average a group of numbers

You may have used AutoSum to quickly add numbers in Excel. But did you know you can also use it to calculate other results, such as averages?

Use AutoSum to quickly find the average

AutoSum lets you find the average in a column or row of numbers where there are no blank cells.

Click a cell below the column or to the right of the row of the numbers for which you want to find the average.

On the HOME tab, click the arrow next to AutoSum > Average, and then press Enter.

Want more?

You may have used AutoSum to quickly add numbers in Excel.

But did you know you can also use it to calculate other results, such as averages?

Click the cell to the right of a row or below a column. Then, on the HOME tab, click the AutoSum down arrow, click Average, verify the formula if what you want, and press Enter.

When I double-click inside the cell, I see it is a formula with the AVERAGE function.

The formula is AVERAGE, A2, colon, A5, which averages the cells from A2 through A5.

When averaging a few cells, the AVERAGE function saves your time. With larger ranges of cells, it’s essential.

If I try to use the AutoSum, Average option here, it only uses cell C5, not the entire column.

Why? Because C4 is blank.

If C4 contained a number, C2 through C5 would be an adjacent range of cells that AutoSum would recognize.

To average values in cells and ranges of cells that aren’t adjacent, type an equals sign (a formula always starts with an equals sign), AVERAGE, open parenthesis, hold down the Ctrl key, click the desired cells and ranges of cells, and press Enter.

The formula uses the AVERAGE function to average the cells containing numbers and ignores the empty cells or those containing text.

For more information about the AVERAGE function, see the course summary at the end of the course.

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How to find the arithmetic mean in Excel?

There are many functions in order to find the average in Excel (although it does not matter what kind of value it is: numerical, textual, percentage or other). And each of them has its own peculiarities and advantages. After all, certain conditions can be put in this task.

For example, the average in Excel is counting using statistical functions. You can also manually enter your own formula. Consider the various options.

How to find the arithmetic mean?

It is necessary to add all the numbers in the set and divide the sum by the number in order to find the arithmetic mean. For example, the student’s marks in computer science: 3, 4, 3, 5, 5. The average rating is 4 for a quarter. We found the arithmetic mean using the formula: =(3 + 4 + 3 + 5 + 5) / 5.

How can you quickly do this with Excel functions? Take for example a number of random numbers in a row:

1. We put the cursor in cell A2 (under a set of numbers). In the menu – «HOME»-«Editing»-«AutoSum»-«Average» button. A formula appears after clicking in the active cell. Select the range: A1: H1 and press ENTER.
2. The second method is based on the same principle of finding the arithmetic mean. But we will call the function AVERAGE differently. Using the function wizard (use fx button or key combination SHIFT + F3).
3. The third way to call the AVERAGE function from the panel: «FORMULAS»-«More Function»-«Statistical»-«AVERAGE».

Or you can make cell to be active and just manually enter the formula: =AVERAGE(A1:A8).

Now let’s see what the AVERAGE function be able to:

Let us find the arithmetic mean of the first two and three last numbers. Formula: =AVERAGE(A1:B1,F1:H1).

Average value by condition

A numerical criterion or a textual criterion can be the condition for finding the arithmetic mean. We will use the function: = AVERAGEIF().

Find the arithmetic mean for numbers that are greater or equal to 10.

The result of using the function «AVERAGEIF» by the condition «>=10» is next:

The third argument «Averaging Range» is omitted. Firstly, it is not necessary. Secondly, the range analyzed by the program contains ONLY numeric values. In the cells specified in the first argument, the search will be performed according to the condition specified in the second argument.

Attention! You can specify the search criteria in the cell. And in the formula make a reference to it.

Let’s find the average value of numbers by the text criterion. For example, the average sales of goods «Tables».

The function will look like this:

Range is a column with the names of goods. Search criteria is a link to a cell with the word «Tables» (you can insert the word «Tables» instead of the A7 link). The averaging range is the cells from which data will be taken to calculate the arithmetic mean.

We get the following value as a result of calculating using the function:

Attention! It is mandatory to point the averaging range for the text criterion (condition).

How to calculate the weighted average price in Excel?

How to calculate the average percentage in Excel? For this purpose, the SUMPRODUCTS and SUM functions are suitable. Table for an example:

How did we know the weighted average price?

Using the formula =SUMPRODUCT() we learn the total revenue after the realization of the entire quantity of goods. And the =SUM() function sums the goods quantity. We found a weighted average price having divided the total revenue from the sale of goods by the total number of units of the goods. This indicator takes into account the «weight» of each price and its share in the total mass of values.

The standard deviation: the formula in Excel

There is a standard deviation in the entire population and in the sampling. In the first case, this is the square root of the general variance. In the second, this is a square root of the sampling variance.

A dispersion formula is compiled to calculate this statistical indicator. The square root is extracted from it. But in Excel, there is a ready-made function for finding the root-mean-square deviation.

The root-mean-square deviation is related to the scope of the initial data. This is not enough for a figurative representation of the variation of the analyzed range. The coefficient of variation is calculated to obtain the relative level of the data variability.

standard deviation / arithmetic mean

The formula in Excel is as follows:

STDEV.P (range of values) / AVERAGE (range of values).

The coefficient of variation is considered as a percentage. Therefore, set the percentage format in the cell set.

Источник

AVERAGE Function

Summary

The Excel AVERAGE function calculates the average (arithmetic mean) of supplied numbers. AVERAGE can handle up to 255 individual arguments, which can include numbers, cell references, ranges, arrays, and constants.

Purpose

Return value

Arguments

• number1 — A number or cell reference that refers to numeric values.
• number2 — [optional] A number or cell reference that refers to numeric values.

Syntax

Usage notes

The AVERAGE function calculates the average of numbers provided as arguments. To calculate the average, Excel sums all numeric values and divides by the count of numeric values.

AVERAGE takes multiple arguments in the form number1, number2, number3, etc. up to 255 total. Arguments can include numbers, cell references, ranges, arrays, and constants. Empty cells, and cells that contain text or logical values are ignored. However, zero (0) values are included. You can ignore zero (0) values with the AVERAGEIFS function, as explained below.

The AVERAGE function will ignore logical values and numbers entered as text. If you need to include these values in the average, see the AVERAGEA function.

If the values given to AVERAGE contain errors, AVERAGE returns an error. You can use the AGGREGATE function to ignore errors.

Basic usage

A typical way to use the AVERAGE function is to provide a range, as seen below. The formula in F3, copied down, is:

At each new row, AVERAGE calculates an average of the quiz scores for each person.

Blank cells

The AVERAGE function automatically ignores blank cells. In the screen below, notice cell C4 is empty, and AVERAGE simply ignores it and computes an average with B4 and D4 only:

However, note the zero (0) value in C5 is included in the average, since it is a valid numeric value. To exclude zero values, use AVERAGEIF or AVERAGEIFS instead. In the example below, AVERAGEIF is used to exclude zero values. Like the AVERAGE function, AVERAGEIF automatically excludes empty cells.

Mixed arguments

The numbers provided to AVERAGE can be a mix of references and constants:

Average with criteria

To calculate an average with criteria, use AVERAGEIF or AVERAGEIFS. In the example below, AVERAGEIFS is used to calculate the average score for Red and Blue groups:

The AVERAGEIFS function can also apply multiple criteria.

Average top 3

By combining the AVERAGE function with the LARGE function, you can calculate an average of top n values. In the example below, the formula in column I computes an average of the top 3 quiz scores in each row:

Weighted average

To calculate a weighted average, you’ll want to use the SUMPRODUCT function, as shown below:

Average without #DIV/0!

The average function automatically ignores empty cells in a set of data. However, if the range contains no numeric values, AVERAGE will return a #DIV/0! error. To avoid this problem, you can check the count of values with the COUNT function and the IF function like this:

When the count of numeric values is zero, IF returns an empty string («»). When the count is greater than zero, AVERAGE returns the average. This example explains this idea in more detail.

Manual average

To calculate the average, AVERAGE sums all numeric values and divides by the count of numeric values. This behavior can be replicated with the SUM and COUNT functions manually like this:

Источник

Функция СРЗНАЧ в Excel используется для вычисления среднего арифметического из заданного диапазона данных.

Что возвращает функция

Возвращает число, соответствующее среднему арифметическому от заданного диапазона данных.

Синтаксис

=AVERAGE(number1, [number2], …) — английская версия

=СРЗНАЧ(число1;[число2];…) — русская версия

Аргументы функции

• number1 (число1) — первое число, диапазон чисел, из которого необходимо вычислить среднее арифметическое;
• [number2] ([число2]) (Опционально) — второе число, диапазон чисел, из которого необходимо вычислить среднее арифметическое. Максимальное количество аргументов функции — 255.

Дополнительная информация

• Аргументами функции СРЗНАЧ (AVERAGE) в Excel могут быть числа, именованные диапазоны, ссылки на ячейки, содержащие числовые значения;
• Ссылки на ячейки содержащими текст, логические значения или пустые ячейки игнорируются функцией. Вместе с тем, ячейки со значением «0» учитываются при вычислении среднего арифметического;
• Учитываются логические значения и текстовые представления чисел, которые вы вводите непосредственно в список аргументов;
• Аргументы с ошибками не могут быть учтены и использованы при работе функции.

Примеры использования функции СРЗНАЧ в Excel