The limitation is due to the function and not the range of points. For
example:

=AVERAGE(A1:A256)


will work just fine. However:

=AVERAGE(A1,A2,A3,A4,A5,A6,A7,A8,A9,A10,A11,A12,A1 3,A14,A15,A16,A17,A18,A19,A20,A21,A22,A23,A24,A25, A26,A27,A28,A29,A30,A31,A32,A33,A34,A35,A36,A37,A3 8,A39,A40,A41,A42,A43,A44,A45,A46,A47,A48,A49,A50, A51,A52,A53,A54,A55,A56,A57,A58,A59,A60,A61,A62,A6 3,A64,A65,A66,A67,A68,A69,A70,A71,A72,A73,A74,A75, A76,A77,A78,A79,A80,A81,A82,A83,A84,A85,A86,A87,A8 8,A89,A90,A91,A92,A93,A94,A95,A96,A97,A98,A99,A100 ,A101,A102,A103,A104,A105,A106,A107,A108,A109,A110 ,A111,A112,A113,A114,A115,A116,A117,A118,A119,A120 ,A121,A122,A123,A124,A125,A126,A127,A128,A129,A130 ,A131,A132,A133,A134,A135,A136,A137,A138,A139,A140 ,A141,A142,A143,A144,A145,A146,A147,A148,A149,A150 ,A151,A152,A153,A154,A155,A156,A157,A158,A159,A160 ,A161,A162,A163,A164,A165,A166,A167,A168,A169,A170 ,A171,A172,A173,A174,A175,A176,A177,A178,A179,A180 ,A181,A182,A183,A184,A185,A186,A187,A188,A189,A190 ,A191,A192,A193,A194,A195,A196,A197,A198,A199,A200 ,A201,A202,A203,A204,A205,A206,A207,A208,A209,A210 ,A211,A212,A213,A214,A215,A216,A217,A218,A219,A220 ,A221,A222,A223,A224,A225,A226,A227,A228,A229,A230 ,A231,A232,A233,A234,A235,A236,A237,A238,A239,A240 ,A241,A242,A243,A244,A245,A246,A247,A248,A249,A250 ,A251,A252,A253,A254,A255,A256)

will not work.
--
Gary''s Student - gsnu200793


"Brian Mc in StL" wrote:

Thanks for the response...When I use these functions on data in a column that
contains less than 255 data points they work fine. When there are more data
points (like 400 or 1000), Excel says that it is calculating but it never
finishes. I tried letting it be for an hour one time but it didn't budge.
Usually, however, the bar at the top of Windcws says Microsoft Excel is not
responding. I then have to force it to close and reopen.

I believe I read somwhere in HELP that these functions are limited to 255
data points but it seems like it should handle more than that relatively
small amount of data.

"Ron Rosenfeld" wrote:

On Sat, 21 Jun 2008 20:54:01 -0700, Brian Mc in StL <Brian Mc in
wrote:

I need to determine mean, median, mode, min, max and rank for a set of data
that exceeds a count of 255. Excel keeps locking up on me I think because
these functions are limited to arrays of 255 numbers or less.

Is there a way I can calculate these statistics on sets of data numbering in
the thousands?

More data would be useful to try to figure out your problem, and why your Excel
is "locking up" (whatever that means)

=MIN(A:A)
=AVERAGE(A:A)
=MODE(A:A)

works fine with values in column A.

etc.
--ron