The LARGE function returns the Nth largest value in a set of numbers.
This can be useful when you need to determine which value is the largest, the second largest, and so forth.
Syntax
LARGE(set, N)
Argument |
Description |
Permitted values |
|---|---|---|
set |
Array or range containing a set of numerical data |
Range of cells or array of numbers |
N |
Position of the number (in descending order) that needs to be returned |
Positive integer (1, 2, 3...) or a reference to a cell containing a number |
Examples of use
Search for the largest value
If you have data in cells A1:A5, for example, [10, 20, 5, 30, 15], then to find the largest value, you can use:
=LARGE(A1:A5, 1)
This formula will return 30.
Search for the second largest value in the same range
=LARGE(A1:A5, 2)
This formula will return 20.
Notes
–If the N value is greater than the number of unique numbers in the array, the function will return the #N/A error.
–The function ignores text values and empty cells.