# Excel help
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-help/431713
**Category:** Factual Questions
**Created:** [December 30, 2007, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-help/431713 "2007-12-30T17:46:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2007, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-help/431713/1 "2007-12-30T17:46:57Z")
It would be useful for me to be able to do the two following things:
1. Suppose there are numbers in columns B, C, D, E, and F. For each row, I’d like to be able to return whether the figure in column B is in first, second, third, fourth, or fifth place.
2. Suppose there are numbers in columns B, C, D, E, and F, except for row 1 which contains labels. For each row, I’d like to return the contents of B1 if the number in B is highest, the contents of C1 if the number in C is highest, etc. Failing that, it would suffice to return an arbitrary result depending on which of the numbers is highest.
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### Author:  [@Vlad\_Igor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vlad_Igor)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2007, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-help/431713/2 "2007-12-30T18:51:10Z")
1. : RANK may do what you want. I haven’t ever used it, so I’m not that familiar with it.
2. MAX(range). I have used this, and it is very easy to use. You can use LOOKUP(value ref, range) to indicate what cell has the max value.
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### Author:  [@Harriet\_the\_Spry](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harriet_the_Spry)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2007, 9:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-help/431713/3 "2007-12-30T21:12:10Z")
If that doesn’t work, you should be able to do it with IF functions.
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### Author:  [@CookingWithGas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CookingWithGas)
#### Post date: [December 30, 2007, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/excel-help/431713/4 "2007-12-30T21:16:41Z")
RANK will do what you want.
1. Suppose you want this result in Column G. By “first place” I assume you mean “highest value.” Column G in each row would have the formula
=RANK(B2,B2:F2)
This formula can be copied to any subsequent row.
Note that if the value in B is in a tie, it’s the place of the tie (e.g., if it’s tied for 4th, it returns 4, and no value would be ranked 5th).
1. This is a little more tedious but not difficult. Suppose you want this result in Column H. Column H in row 2 would have the formula
=IF(RANK(B2,B2:F2)=1,B$1,IF(RANK(C2,B2:F2)=1,C$1,IF(RANK(D2,B2:F2)=1,D$1,IF(RANK(E2,B2:F2)\*1,E$1,IF(RANK(F2,B2:F2)=1,F$1,“ERROR”)))))
This formula can be copied to any subsequent row.
If there is a tie, the leftmost column will be the one selected.
Note that this is nested 6 IFs deep, Excel has a limit of 7. I also added an error condition, which should never actually occur but if it does it means there is an error in the formula.
Non-numerical values in the rows will cause a #VALUE! error.
I have tested this in Excel 2003 and it works.