MAX

[Marceline]

I understand how to use the MAX function to find the
SINGLE largest value in a column, but is there a way to
find, say, the FIVE biggest values?

 

[Dan E]

Marceline,

Take a look at the LARGE function.

Dan E

 

[Bob Phillips]

Marceline,

This is a job for LARGE
=LARGE(rng,1)
=LARGE(rng,2)
etc.

Summing the largest 5 is done with

=SUM(LARGE(A1:J1,{1,2,3,4,5}))

--

HTH

Bob Phillips
... looking out across Poole Harbour to the Purbecks
(remove nothere from the email address if mailing direct)

 

[Marceline]

Hmmm. Yes, I see how that works. What I am actually
trying to do is calculate the sum of the five largest
values in array. Does this mean that I should use LARGE
to come up with the five biggest numbers and then total
them, or is there some shorter way?
eg:

=LARGE(array,1)+LARGE(array,2)+LARGE(array,3)+LARGE
(array,4)+LARGE(array,5)

To make matters worse, I actually want to make the nth
factor a variable. Sometimes I will be summing the two
highest numbers, sometimes four, sometimes five, etc. It
will depend on how many data points there are in the
array.