# Google Documents Spreadsheet Formula for median?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-documents-spreadsheet-formula-for-median/636536>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [October 3, 2012, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-documents-spreadsheet-formula-for-median/636536 "2012-10-03T00:52:13Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 7\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Covered\_In\_Bees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2012, 12:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-documents-spreadsheet-formula-for-median/636536/1 "2012-10-03T00:52:13Z")

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Hello all!

See the subject, basically.

Is there a formula for a Google spreadsheet that calculates the mean of a given range of cells? Don’t need anything complicated, this is a simple project.

There are HARMEAN, GEOMEAN and TRIMMEAN, but none of them return a correct value after I double check their work. Hell, the last one I don’t even know how to correctly enter the values.

If you have an even number of values, the mean is the average of the two in the middle, correct? Gotta make sure I’m not doing it wrong. 😉

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**Author:** ![RitterSport](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rittersport/32/6326_2.png) [@RitterSport](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RitterSport)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2012, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-documents-spreadsheet-formula-for-median/636536/2 "2012-10-03T00:55:40Z")

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> [@Covered\_In\_Bees](#):
>
> Hello all!
> 
> See the subject, basically.
> 
> Is there a formula for a Google spreadsheet that calculates the mean of a given range of cells? Don’t need anything complicated, this is a simple project.
> 
> There are HARMEAN, GEOMEAN and TRIMMEAN, but none of them return a correct value after I double check their work. Hell, the last one I don’t even know how to correctly enter the values.
> 
> If you have an even number of values, the mean is the average of the two in the middle, correct? Gotta make sure I’m not doing it wrong. 😉

AVERAGE as in:

=AVERAGE(A1:A5)

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**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2012, 12:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-documents-spreadsheet-formula-for-median/636536/3 "2012-10-03T00:56:11Z")

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=AVERAGE() just like Excel. I wish both had “synonyms.”

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**Author:** ![Covered\_In\_Bees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2012, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-documents-spreadsheet-formula-for-median/636536/4 "2012-10-03T01:18:05Z")

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Well I’m an idiot.

I mean "median. :smack::o  
EDIT: :smack::smack::smack::smack:

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**Author:** ![Gukumatz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/74df32/32.png) [@Gukumatz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gukumatz)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2012, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-documents-spreadsheet-formula-for-median/636536/5 "2012-10-03T01:24:35Z")

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Edited thread title from “mean” to “median.” Also added extra padding.

- Gukumatz

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**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2012, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-documents-spreadsheet-formula-for-median/636536/6 "2012-10-03T01:42:58Z")

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Isn’t it just =MEDIAN() ?

If not I can try to figure out a formula.

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Covered\_In\_Bees](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7ab992/32.png) [@Covered\_In\_Bees](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covered_In_Bees)\
**Post date:** [October 3, 2012, 9:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/google-documents-spreadsheet-formula-for-median/636536/7 "2012-10-03T21:14:20Z")

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Well I’m still an idiot.

=MEDIAN() worked.

I swear I did a search in the help topics for “median” and nothing came up! In either case, this thread inspired **[a new one](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?p=15552671#post15552671)** that I strongly urge you to contribute to.