MIN and MAX
Part of the Fundamentals section of Coddy's Excel journey — lesson 25 of 42.
Two more functions, same familiar pattern. MIN finds the smallest number in a range; MAX finds the largest:
=MIN(B2:B6)
=MAX(B2:B6)With temperatures 18, 24, 15, 21 and 19 in the range, MIN shows 15 and MAX shows 24. Notice they return an actual value from the data, not a position, not a count.
These two shine on questions like "what was the coldest day?", "what's our best-selling month?", "what's the cheapest option?", scanning a long column by eye is slow and error-prone; the functions never miss.
They also pair naturally: showing MIN and MAX side by side gives the full spread of your data at a glance. Both recalculate the moment any value in the range changes.
Challenge
BeginnerDaily temperatures for a week sit in B2:B6.
Two labels are ready: Lowest in A8 and Highest in A9.
- In
B8: the lowest temperature, usingMIN - In
B9: the highest temperature, usingMAX
Both formulas should point at the same range, the data will change between tests.
Try it yourself
| A | B | C | D | E | F | G | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Day | Temp | |||||
| 2 | Mon | 18 | |||||
| 3 | Tue | 24 | |||||
| 4 | Wed | 15 | |||||
| 5 | Thu | 21 | |||||
| 6 | Fri | 19 | |||||
| 7 | |||||||
| 8 | Lowest | ||||||
| 9 | Highest | ||||||
| 10 | |||||||
| 11 | |||||||
| 12 | |||||||
| 13 | |||||||
| 14 |
Test yourselfThis lesson includes a short quiz. Start the lesson to answer it and track your progress.
All lessons in Fundamentals
1Meet the Spreadsheet
What Is a Spreadsheet?Cells and ReferencesYour First CellsRows, Columns and the GridRecap: Meet the Grid