How to Do Aggregate Calculations in Excel

The AGGREGATE function in Excel allows you to perform a variety of aggregate calculations (e.g. SUM, AVERAGE, MAX, MIN, COUNT) on a range of cells, while ignoring any errors or hidden cells. This function is particularly useful when working with large data sets that may contain errors or blank cells.

The syntax for the AGGREGATE function is: AGGREGATE(function_num, options, array, [k])

Where:

• function_num is the number that specifies which aggregate function to use (e.g. 1 for AVERAGE, 2 for COUNT, 3 for MAX, etc.)
• options is a number that specifies which values to ignore in the calculation (e.g. 2 to ignore any error values, 3 to ignore any hidden cells, 4 to ignore both errors and hidden cells)
• array is the range of cells or array constant to perform the calculation on
• k is an optional argument that specifies which value to return when function_num is set to 5 (which calculates the k-th largest value in the range). If k is omitted, the function returns the largest value.

For example, the following formula calculates the average of a range of cells (D1:D10), ignoring any hidden cells:

To find maximum value, follow the formula:

To find summation of the values, follow the formula:

Note that the function_num and options arguments can be combined to create a variety of aggregate functions with different behavior. For example, using function_num = 6 and options = 1 calculates the median of the range, while function_num = 9 and options = 1 calculates the mode of the range.