The Excel MAXA Function

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Related Functions:  MAX Function MINA Function MIN Function LARGE Function SMALL Function

The Excel MAXA function returns the largest value from a supplied set of numerical values, while counting text and the logical value FALSE as the value 0 and counting the logical value TRUE as the value 1.

The syntax of the function is :

where the number arguments are a set of one or more numeric values, or arrays of numeric values, that you want to return the largest value of. These values can be supplied either directly to the function, as cells containing numeric values, or as values returned from other excel formulas.

In Excel 2007 & Excel 2010, you can provide up to 255 number arguments to the Maxa function, but in Excel 2003 or earlier, you can only provide up to 30 number arguments.

Excel Maxa vs. Excel Max

The Maxa function is very similar to the Max Function function. The only difference is when an argument is supplied to the function as a reference to a cell or an array of cells. In this case the Max function ignores logical and text values, while the Maxa function counts the logical value TRUE as 1, the logical value FALSE as 0 and text values as 0.

Excel Maxa Function Example

The following spreadsheet shows examples of use of the Maxa function.

The function formats are shown in the spreadsheet on the left and the results are shown in the spreadsheet on the right.

Formulas:

Results:

Further examples of the Excel Maxa function can be found on the Microsoft Office website.

Maxa Function Error

If you get an error from the Excel Maxa Function, this is likely to be the #VALUE! error: