Calculating an Average within a Date Range

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated January 15, 2022)
This tip applies to Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Excel in Microsoft 365, and 2021


3

Dan has a worksheet that contains information about homes sold in his community. The sheet has a number of columns, two of which are Sale Date and Selling Price. Dan would like to calculate an average sales price for sales made between a starting and ending Sale Date. He could filter the data and then calculate an average, but he would rather just come up with a formula that returned the value. He's not sure how to go about that, however.

There are actually a number of different ways you can get the average you seek. Let's assume, for the sake of example, that you select all the cells that contain the sale dates and give that range the name SaleDate. Further, you define the name SellingPrice to refer to the range that contains the selling prices. Finally, you define cells for StartDate and EndDate (their contents should be self-explanatory). Given this, you could use a formula such as this:

=AVERAGEIFS(SellingPrice, SaleDate, ">=" & StartDate, SaleDate, "<=" & EndDate)

As I said, there are other formulas you could use, as well. Here are just two:

=AVERAGE(IF((SaleDate >= StartDate) * (SaleDate <= EndDate), SellingPrice))
=AVERAGE(FILTER(SellingPrice, ((SaleDate >= StartDate) * (SaleDate <= EndDate))))

Which one should you use? It really doesn't matter in this case; it is entirely up to you. Each returns the exact same result, and you don't need to worry about sorting your data in any particular order.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (12809) applies to Microsoft Excel 2007, 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019, Excel in Microsoft 365, and 2021.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Automatically Moving from Cell to Cell when Entering Data

As you enter data in a worksheet, you may want to have Excel automatically move from cell to cell based on the length of ...

Discover More

Conditional Formatting in PivotTables

Conditional formatting is very powerful, and you can use it to dynamically adjust how your data looks. Excel allows you ...

Discover More

Making Highlighting Disappear when Typing

Select a highlighted word or phrase and start typing, and Word maintains the highlighting on what you enter. If this ...

Discover More

Excel Smarts for Beginners! Featuring the friendly and trusted For Dummies style, this popular guide shows beginners how to get up and running with Excel while also helping more experienced users get comfortable with the newest features. Check out Excel 2013 For Dummies today!

More ExcelTips (ribbon)

Saving Common Formulas

Got some formulas you slaved over and want to use in lots of workbooks? This tip presents some helpful ideas on how you ...

Discover More

Changing the Reference in a Named Range

Define a named range today and you may want to change the definition at some future point. It's rather easy to do, as ...

Discover More

Generating Double-Digit Random Numbers

Normally you use the RAND and RANDBETWEEN functions to generate random numbers. What if you want to generate random ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is five more than 8?

2022-01-19 18:26:54

Chris

@Sidney Kaine - if you still have questions after reading MS' post, feel free to reach out to me and I can talk you through whatever you're struggling with. Here's my e-mail address that I check a couple times a week to help users with EXCEL questions - reaume17@gmail.com

@Dan (the person who originally asked this question to Allen) - feel free to contact me as well if you have any follow-up questions


2022-01-15 18:09:46

MS

As asked ... Here is an example with cell ranges instead of named ranges. I used a sample of 3 sales.

I put the formula in cell A2. =AVERAGEIFS(B5:B7, A5:A7, ">=" & B1, A5:A7, "<=" & B2)

Cell B1 contains the start date. I used 1/1/2022.

Cell B2 contains the end date. I used 1/10/2022.

Cells A5, A6, and A7 contain the sale dates. I used 1/1/2022, 1/15/2022, and 1/10/2022.

Cells B5, B6, and B7 contain the selling prices. I used 100000, 150000, and 200000.

The formula returns 150000.

Hope this helps.


2022-01-15 12:10:53

Sidney Kaine

Could someone please show the below formula filled in with actual cell references. There are a few things I find confusing, ie if the " need to be added and the spaces within the formula need to be added, etc. A small set of numbers with a completed formula would help me a lot.

=AVERAGEIFS(SellingPrice, SaleDate, ">=" & StartDate, SaleDate, "<=" & EndDate)

Thank you,
Sidney


This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the ribbon interface (Excel 2007 or later)? This site is for you! If you use an earlier version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the menu interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.