Excel Highest Value in column or row

Excel Highest Value in a column, row or range

If you use spreadsheets regularly you may be interested in knowing the highest value in a column, row or range in Excel. There are a few ways to achieve this, ranked from best to worst (our opinion)

MAX Function

Make use of the MAX (click to view video clip) function. For the MAX function all you need to do is type in =MAX( and then point to the cell/s that you are wanting to compare). The result of this will be the highest number Excel can find.

LARGE function

Another useful function is the LARGE function. It is similar to the MAX function except with LARGE you can specify which how large e.g. do you want the largest number, or the second largest etc.

Customise the Status Bar

The bar at the very bottom of Excel is called the status bar (if you highlight 2 cells with numbers in a SUM will appear in this bar). You can use it to get the MAX as well. Right click on the status bar and switch on you Maximum option. Now when you highlight a number of cells it will show you the Maximum of the cells selected

Data Sort

You can use Data sort in descending order to find the biggest. The problem is if all the numbers you are looking at are not in the same column.

Avoid AVERAGE, MIN and MAX typical errors