Suppose I have two columns of data. Column A is the independent variable,
say TIME. Column B is the dependent variable, say SPEED. The data are
collected on a car that starts from rest, accelerates, decellerates, then
stops. Clearly, the car attained some maximum speed during the test. I can
find the value of the maximum speed by using the worksheet function =MAX(B),
but I want to know at what time (column A) the maximum occurred. Of course I
can do a manual (visual) search, but this is laborious and eye-straining for
reams of data. What single worksheet function (or more likely, nested
functions) can I use to return the time value?

=INDEX(A2:A100,MATCH(MAX(B2:B100),B2:B100,0))

TECHNOID wrote:
Suppose I have two columns of data. Column A is the independent variable,
say TIME. Column B is the dependent variable, say SPEED. The data are
collected on a car that starts from rest, accelerates, decellerates, then
stops. Clearly, the car attained some maximum speed during the test. I can
find the value of the maximum speed by using the worksheet function =MAX(B),
but I want to know at what time (column A) the maximum occurred. Of course I
can do a manual (visual) search, but this is laborious and eye-straining for
reams of data. What single worksheet function (or more likely, nested
functions) can I use to return the time value?

Thank you "Aladin Akyurek," your formula seems to work! Regards, TECHNOID

"Aladin Akyurek" wrote:

=INDEX(A2:A100,MATCH(MAX(B2:B100),B2:B100,0))

TECHNOID wrote:
Suppose I have two columns of data. Column A is the independent variable,
say TIME. Column B is the dependent variable, say SPEED. The data are
collected on a car that starts from rest, accelerates, decellerates, then
stops. Clearly, the car attained some maximum speed during the test. I can
find the value of the maximum speed by using the worksheet function =MAX(B),
but I want to know at what time (column A) the maximum occurred. Of course I
can do a manual (visual) search, but this is laborious and eye-straining for
reams of data. What single worksheet function (or more likely, nested
functions) can I use to return the time value?

If you want to also retrieve times corresponding to multiple instances
of the max speed (as Harlan noted), try my post in:

http://tinyurl.com/562xz

or construct a pivot table, which can be made show the Top 1 values.

TECHNOID wrote:
Thank you "Aladin Akyurek," your formula seems to work! Regards, TECHNOID

"Aladin Akyurek" wrote:


=INDEX(A2:A100,MATCH(MAX(B2:B100),B2:B100,0))

TECHNOID wrote:

Suppose I have two columns of data. Column A is the independent variable,
say TIME. Column B is the dependent variable, say SPEED. The data are
collected on a car that starts from rest, accelerates, decellerates, then
stops. Clearly, the car attained some maximum speed during the test. I can
find the value of the maximum speed by using the worksheet function =MAX(B),
but I want to know at what time (column A) the maximum occurred. Of course I
can do a manual (visual) search, but this is laborious and eye-straining for
reams of data. What single worksheet function (or more likely, nested
functions) can I use to return the time value?


--

[1] The SumProduct function should implicitly coerce the truth values to
their Excel numeric equivalents.
[2] The lookup functions should have an optional argument for the return
value, defaulting to #N/A in its absence.

Aladin Akyurek wrote...
=INDEX(A2:A100,MATCH(MAX(B2:B100),B2:B100,0))
....

Finds the topmost match. If there were multiple instances of the MAX
value, would any corresponding col A value be equally acceptable? If
so,

=LOOKUP(2,1/(B2:B100=MAX(B2:B100)),A2:A100)

would be a bit more efficient, and would return the bottommost match.

Hi,

This avoids the division, but don't know how much efficient it is,

=LOOKUP(2,SEARCH(MAX(B2:B100),B2:B100),A2:A100)

HTH


--
Krishnakumar


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[1]

=INDEX(A2:A100,MATCH(MAX(B2:B100),B2:B100,0))

appears a tad faster than

[2]

=LOOKUP(2,1/(B2:B100=MAX(B2:B100)),A2:A100)

which is a tad faster than

[3]

=LOOKUP(2,SEARCH(MAX(B2:B100),B2:B100),A2:A100)

The difference can probably be attributed to the fact that [1] operates
on range objects, while [2] and [3] must process calculated arrays.

Krishnakumar wrote:
Hi,

This avoids the division, but don't know how much efficient it is,

=LOOKUP(2,SEARCH(MAX(B2:B100),B2:B100),A2:A100)

HTH