MEDIAN
Return the value in the middle of a sorted set of numbers.
Syntax
MEDIAN(number1, [number2], ...)| Argument | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
number1 | Required | A range or value. |
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 |
|---|---|---|
=MEDIAN(A1:A5) | 20 | Of 10, 20 and 30 — text and blanks are excluded first. |
=MEDIAN(10,20,30,40) | 25 | An even count averages the middle two. |
When to prefer it over the mean
A single outlier moves an AVERAGE and leaves a median
alone. Nine salaries around 30,000 and one at 500,000 give a mean near 77,000 —
a figure nobody in the room earns. The median stays at 30,000.
Report the median when the distribution is skewed, and report both when they differ a lot. The gap between them is a description of the skew.
No sorting required
The values need not be in order — MEDIAN sorts internally. Nor do they need to
be contiguous; ranges and individual numbers can be mixed in one call.
Excel compatibility
Matches Excel.