How to Calculate Upper & Lower Limits With Excel 2007

By Gina Poirier

Sort through spreadsheet data quickly with Excel's statistical functions.
i Jupiterimages/Comstock/Getty Images

Lists of data can be long and cumbersome to analyze without some help from an electronic spreadsheet. If you have a large set of data in Excel and need to calculate its range or upper and lower limits, you can quickly use one of the program's functions instead of picking through the numbers yourself. Save yourself some time and some squinting by using the "Max" and "Min" functions.

Step 1

Select a blank cell where you would like to display the minimum or maximum value. If the range of values is all in one contiguous row or column, select a cell below or to the right of it.

Step 2

Click the arrow next to the "AutoSum" button in the "Editing" group on the "Home" tab of the Excel Ribbon.

Step 3

Select "Max" if you would like to calculate the maximum value or "Min" if you would like to calculate the minimum value.

Step 4

Select the data you for which you would like to find the minimum and maximum value. If the numbers are in a contiguous column or row, Excel should select them automatically. If they numbers are not in contiguous columns or rows, click on them one by one while holding down the "Ctrl" key.

Step 5

Press "Enter." Excel will calculate the largest or smallest value in a set of numbers.

×