With your posted data list in A1:C7
Name Height Age Rank
Bill Short 55
Mary Short 45
Tom Tall 16
Rufus Short 21
Henrietta Tall 39
Henry Tall 38

Try this:
D2: =SUMPRODUCT(--(C2<($B$2:$B$7=B2)*$C$2:$C$7))+1
Copy that formula down through D7

Does that help?
***********
Regards,
Ron

XL2002, WinXP


" wrote:

I'm looking for a way to grab a rank in a single column where the set
of values ranked from--the second argument in the RANK wks function--
is conditional. Say I had this data

Name Height Age Rank
Bill Short 55 1
Mary Short 45 2
Tom Tall 16 3
Rufus Short 21 3
Henrietta Tall 39 1
Henry Tall 38 2

I want to be able to do this in a single-column, array-type formula:

IF(Height="Short",RankAgeAmongShortPeople,RankAgeA mongTallPeople)

Is this possible, or do I have to use several columns to get there?
(Chip's excellent page on ranking does not seem to cover this to me
http://www.cpearson.com/excel/rank.htm)

Thanks in advance.