Microsoft KB Archive/156445

= XL97: New A Functions in Microsoft Excel 97 =

Article ID: 156445

Article Last Modified on 10/20/2000

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APPLIES TO


 * Microsoft Excel 97 Standard Edition

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This article was previously published under Q156445



SUMMARY
Microsoft Excel 97 includes a new set of functions that are designed to be 100% compatible with a similar set of functions in Lotus 1-2-3. This article describes the new functions, which are called A functions (because the function names all end in A).



MORE INFORMATION
The new A functions in Microsoft Excel 97 are:

AVERAGEA

MINA

MAXA

STDEVA

STDEVPA

VARA

VARPA

In general, the A functions treat text and logical values differently than the equivalent non-A functions in Microsoft Excel. The breakdown is as follows:   Value type            Non-A functions       A functions --

Numbers              Treated normally      Treated normally Text                 Text is ignored       Text has a value of 0 TRUE Logical Value   TRUE is ignored       TRUE has a value of 1 FALSE Logical Value  FALSE is ignored      FALSE has a value of 0 Each A function is described in detail in the following sections.

AVERAGEA and AVERAGE
The AVERAGEA function returns the average of its arguments, including numbers, text, and logical values. This differs from the AVERAGE function, which only returns the average of arguments that are numbers; text and logical values are ignored by the AVERAGE function.

Example:

If you type the following example data:

A1: 1

A2: 2

A3: 6

A4: TRUE

A5: hello

the formula =AVERAGEA(A1:A5) returns the value 2, because TRUE has a value of 1, the text "hello" has a value of 0, the sum of 1, 2, 6, 1, and 0 is 10, and 10 divided by 5 is 2.

The formula =AVERAGE(A1:A5) returns the value 3, which is the average of the numbers in the range.

MINA and MAXA, and MIN and MAX
The MINA and MAXA functions return the minimum and maximum values in a list of arguments, including numbers, text, and logical values. The standard MIN and MAX functions, return the minimum and maximum values in a list of arguments, but they only consider numeric values. Text and logical values are ignored by the MIN and MAX functions.

Using the example data in the AVERAGEA and AVERAGE section, consider the following formulas.   Formula       Return value   Reason

=MINA(A1:A5) 0              The text "hello" has a value of 0. =MIN(A1:A5)  1              The smallest numeric value in the range is 1. =MINA(A1:A3) 1              The range includes only numeric values, and the smallest value is 1. =MAXA(A1:A5) 6              The largest value in the range is 6. =MAX(A1:A5)  6              The largest value in the range is 6.

STDEVA and STDEV
The STDEVA function returns an estimate of the standard deviation of a sample. If the sample includes text and/or logical values, these are included in the standard deviation calculation. The STDEV function also returns the standard deviation of a sample, but only numeric values within the sample are considered.

Using the sample data in the AVERAGEA and AVERAGE section, the formula =STDEVA(A1:A5) returns the value 2.3452; the formula =STDEV(A1:A5) returns the value 2.6458. The difference between the results is due to the fact that the STDEVA function considers all values in the range when creating its sample, not just the numeric values.

STDEVPA and STDEVP
The STDEVPA function returns the standard deviation of the entire population of a range, including text and logical values. The STDEVP function returns the standard deviation of all of the numeric values in the range.

Using the sample data in the AVERAGEA and AVERAGE section, the formula =STDEVPA(A1:A5) returns the value 2.0976, and the formula =STDEVP(A1:A5) returns the value 2.1602.

VARA and VAR
The VARA function returns an estimate of the variance of a sample, including text and logical values. The VAR function returns an estimate of a sample using only numeric values contained in the sample.

VARPA and VARP
The VARPA function returns the variance of a range of values, including text and logical values. The VARP function also returns the variance of a range of values, but only numeric values are used in the calculation.

