AVERAGEA Function
Returns the average (arithmetic mean) of the values in a column. Handles text and non-numeric values.
Syntax
AVERAGEA(<column>)
Parameters
Term |
Definition |
|---|---|
column |
A column that contains the values for which you want the average. |
Return Value
A decimal number.
Remarks
The AVERAGEA function takes a column and averages the numbers in it, but also handles non-numeric data types according to the following rules:
Values that evaluates to TRUE count as 1.
Values that evaluate to FALSE count as 0 (zero).
Values that contain non-numeric text count as 0 (zero).
Empty text ("") counts as 0 (zero).
If you do not want to include logical values and text representations of numbers in a reference as part of the calculation, use the AVERAGE function.
Whenever there are no rows to aggregate, the function returns a blank. However, if there are rows, but none of them meet the specified criteria, the function returns 0. Microsoft Excel also returns a zero if no rows are found that meet the conditions.
Example
The following example returns the average of non-blank cells in the referenced column, given the following table. If you used the AVERAGE function, the mean would be 21/2; with the AVERAGEA function, the result is 22/5.
Transaction ID |
Amount |
Result |
|---|---|---|
0000123 |
1 |
Counts as 1 |
0000124 |
20 |
Counts as 20 |
0000125 |
n/a |
Counts as 0 |
0000126 |
Counts as 0 |
|
0000126 |
TRUE |
Counts as 1 |
=AVERAGEA([Amount])