Calculates the middle value of a given set of numbers
The MEDIAN Function[1] is categorized under Excel Statistical functions. The function will calculate the middle value of a given set of numbers. Median can be defined as the middle number of a group of numbers. That is, half the numbers return values that are greater than the median, and half the numbers return values that are less than the median. For example, the median of 2, 3, 3, 5, 7, and 10 is 4.
In financial analysis, the function can be useful in calculating the median of certain numbers, e.g., median sales or median expenses.
=MEDIAN(number1, [number2], …)
The function uses the following arguments:
For the MEDIAN function, remember that:
As a worksheet function, MEDIAN can be entered as part of a formula in a cell of a worksheet. To understand the uses of the function, let us consider a few examples:
Let’s understand how this function would calculate the median using the set of values below:
Here we provided an odd set of values. The formula used was:
We get the results below:
Suppose we now provide an even set of numbers and use the formula below:
As it is an even set of numbers, the average of the two middle values is returned.
For the data below:
We used the following formula:
While calculating the median for the above range, the function ignored the logical values and gave the result below:
Click here to download the sample Excel file
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