Microsoft Office

Part II
Working with Formulas and Functions
The following array formula returns the contents of the last nonempty cell in the first 500 rows of column A:
{=INDEX(A1:A500,MAX(ROW(A1:A500)*(A1:A500””)))}
You can, of course, modify the formula to work with a column other than column A. To use a different column,
change the four column references from A to whatever column you need. If the last nonempty cell
occurs in a row beyond row 500, you need to change the two instances of 500 to a larger number. The
fewer rows referenced in the formula, the faster the calculation speed.
You can[‘t use this formula, as written, in the same column with which it’s working.
Attempting to do so generates a circular reference. You can, however, modify it. For example,
to use the function in cell A1, change the references so that they begin with row 2 instead of row 1.
CAUTION
Returning the last value in a row
The following array formula is similar to the previous formula, but it returns the last nonempty cell in a row
(in this case, row 1):
{=INDEX(1:1,MAX(COLUMN(1:1)*(1:1””)))}
To use this formula for a different row, change the 1:1 reference to correspond to the row.
Ranking data with an array formula
Often, computing the rank orders for the values in a range of data is helpful. If you have a worksheet containing
the annual sales figures for 20 salespeople, for example, you may want to know how each person
ranks, from highest to lowest.
If you’ve used the Excel program’s RANK function, you may have noticed that the ranks produced by this
function don’t handle ties the way that you may like. For example, if two values are tied for third place, the
RANK function gives both of them a rank of 3. You may prefer a commonly-used approach that assigns each
an average (or midpoint) of the ranks — in other words, a rank of 3.5 for both values tied for third place.
Figure 18.8 shows a worksheet that uses two methods to rank a column of values (named Sales). The first
method (column C) uses the Excel RANK function. Column D uses array formulas to compute the ranks.
The following is the array formula in cell D5:
{=SUM(1*(B5