AVERAGE
Add up the numbers and divide by how many there were.
Syntax
AVERAGE(number1, [number2], ...)| Argument | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
number1 | Required | A range or value to average. |
number2 | Optional | Further ranges or values. |
Examples
Every example below was executed against VisiGrid engine 0.35.0 — not
transcribed from another vendor's documentation. Reproduce any of them with vgrid calc.
| Formula | Result | Notes |
|---|---|---|
=AVERAGE(A1:A5) | 20 | 10, 20 and 30 — the text and the blank are ignored. |
=COUNT(A1:A5) | 3 | The denominator AVERAGE actually used. |
Blanks are skipped, not treated as zero
This matters more than it sounds. Averaging a column where some rows are empty gives the mean of the rows that have values — not a smaller number dragged down by imaginary zeros.
If the blanks should count as zero, say so explicitly:
=SUM(A1:A5) / COUNTA(A1:A5)Those two readings answer different questions, and the difference is invisible in the result. Deciding which you mean is the whole job.
When the mean misleads
One extreme value drags an average a long way. MEDIAN
does not move, which is why salary and house-price figures are usually medians.
Quote both when they disagree; the gap is itself information.
Excel compatibility
Matches Excel — text and blanks are excluded rather than counted as zero.