Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here: Averaging a Non-Contiguous Range.
Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated October 7, 2022)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365
Tom needs to average a series of non-contiguous cells, excluding any cells that may contain zero values. Specifically, he needs to average cells A1, C1, E1, G1, and J1, but only counting those cells that don't contain zero.
Before getting into what works, let's take a look at what doesn't work. First of all, it doesn't work to simply add the cells and divide by 5; that doesn't take zero values into account. Second, it doesn't work to use COUNTIF in the denominator of your formula, as shown here:
=(A1+C1+E1+G1+J1) / COUNTIF(A1:J1,"<>0")
This doesn't work because it examines and counts cells within the entire range of A1:J1, not just the five cells you want considered in the average. You might also think that you could select your five non-contiguous cells, give them a name, and then use the name in your formula. While Excel allows you to create the name, the following gives an error:
=SUM(MyCells) / COUNTIF(MyCells,"<>0")
It appears that COUNTIF will only work with a single contiguous range, so the non-contiguous nature of the MyCells range throws the function into a tailspin. A similar problem occurs if you try to use a non-contiguous range with the AVERAGEIF function:
=AVERAGEIF(MyCells, "<>0")
Since you can't use any of the functions you might want to use, you are left to rely on a bit longer formula to calculate the average. You can calculate the average of these five cells by applying a bit of "trickery" to your denominator, in this manner:
=(A1+C1+E1+G1+J1) / ((A1<>0)+(C1<>0)+(E1<>0)+(G1<>0)+(J1<>0))
The evaluation done on each cell in the denominator returns either a 1 (for True) or a 0 (for False) depending on whether the cell contains a non-zero value or not. This series of values is added together, providing the necessary count of non-zero cells for the denominator.
Notice that the discussion here has been all about the denominator in the formula, not the numerator. The reason is simple—you can add all five values into the numerator; zero values there don't really matter. The only place they matter is in the denominator, which is what makes calculating this average so tricky.
ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (7845) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. You can find a version of this tip for the older menu interface of Excel here: Averaging a Non-Contiguous Range.
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2022-05-11 04:23:39
jhoanna juanillo
thanks so much for this tip, helps a lot with my report.
2021-08-17 06:10:51
Dave
Thank you very much for this breath taking trick
2020-06-12 08:36:51
Thank you very much. Tried to copy and paste this function to another row , but didn't work. Any suggestions?
2020-02-27 18:36:27
Jasper
Looking everywhere for this. THANK YOU!
2020-02-18 19:04:52
JB
Thank you so much for this tip! I had searched several sites and this was my answer! Thank you!
2019-06-28 02:42:54
JohnoP
Thanks SteveJez - gave me perfect platform to experiment with to find a solution.
2019-06-25 03:29:55
SteveJez
JohnoP,
Not sure how your data will be set out but maybe the following will help
=(SUM(B4:D4)+(SUM(E4:I4)-IF(COUNTA(E4:I4)>4,MIN(E4:I4))))/7 based on the layout in Fig 1. (see Figure 1 below)
the divide by 7 at the end is your number of subjects. Be careful of all of the brackets & their location if you retype.
HTH
Figure 1. Example layout
2019-06-25 01:38:54
JohnoP
Brilliant! So useful. As an added challenge, I have students who do 7 subjects while others do 8. What if I need to average as you show yet I want to ignore the lowest result of those with 8 subjects? To add a further wrinkle, 3 subjects may not be ignored as they are compulsory.
2019-05-17 18:52:14
Peter Atherton
NNN
Here are a couple of solutions, one that includes Steve's solution. I'm not sure if you want the negative sign rmoved or not so both methos are here.
(see Figure 1 below)
Figure 1.
2019-05-17 07:28:25
SteveJez
NNN,
Inspired by your solution, does this work for you;
I named a range of non contiguous cells - test1
=SUM(test1)/(INDEX(FREQUENCY((test1),-0.00001),1)+INDEX(FREQUENCY((test1),0),2))
it seems to do what you're describing.
HTH
2019-05-17 07:05:36
SteveJez
NNN,
Inspired by your solution, does this work for you;
I named a range of non contiguous cells - test1
=SUM(test1)/(INDEX(FREQUENCY((test1),-0.00001),1)+INDEX(FREQUENCY((test1),0),2))
it seems to do what you're describing.
HTH
2019-05-16 22:05:57
NNN
Hi there
I used below formula to get average of non contiguous cell however it doesn't work when there is negative value. how can I avoid negative
P3 cell will have -300
R3 cell has -400
U3 has -100
x3 has -50
AA3 has -50
=SUM(P3,R3,U3,X3,AA3)/INDEX(FREQUENCY((P3,R3,U3,X3,AA3),0),2)
2018-12-14 02:44:54
SteveJez
Marc,
Try the following;
=IFERROR((G21+J21+M21)/((G21<>0)+(J21<>0)+(M21<>0)),"Nothing to Average")
2018-12-13 15:30:58
Marc
Hi,
Thank you!!! Your suggestion above works great.
In my file I am averaging 3 cells, most of the time there is at least 1 or 2 cells with values, but occasionally all the cells are 0 and I get the following #DIV/O!. Is there away to fix this or ignoring the average calculation when all are zero..?
=(G21+J21+M21)/((G21<>0)+(J21<>0)+(M21<>0))
Really appreciate your assistance
Thank you,
Marcus
{fig}
2018-10-27 16:35:01
Eric J
This will also do the trick.
=SUM(MyCells)/(COUNT(MyCells)-FREQUENCY(MyCells,0))
Frequency will count the (0) zeros in the MyCells array and ignore blank cells and text.
Count will tally the cells in the array with numbers only.
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Please Note:
This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, and Excel in Microsoft 365. If you are using an earlier version (Excel 2003 or earlier), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for earlier versions of Excel, click here:
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