Hi all,

Thanks in advance for being there and helping. I'm Ok with the basics of Excel, and indeed some years ago got quite good with bits of it, but am struggling with something at home now, as I have no manual, and I haven't needed Excel for some time so I feel like a beginner again. I can't even find a manual online, and I thought surely that MS would have a helping copy of the manual somewhere!

Anyway, if anyone could guide me I'd be very grateful.

I have three or four columns of figures, and need to find a way of taking the two highest amounts, whichever column they may be in, and adding them together, with the sum displayed in a fourth column.

So, for example, in the first line 15, 18 and 22 would give me a sum of 30 (EDIT that should be 40 - sorry!)

and in the second line 21, 20 and 12 would give me 41, etc.

Is there a simple formula to do this, please. I have vague memories of a "compare" function, but that may not have been Excel..

Thanks if anyone can help.

Jon B.

Help from Brazil.

Good Morning Jon B.

Supposing your data at columns A,B and C, try to do this:

D1 -- =LARGE(A1:C1,1)+LARGE(A1:C1,2)

Tell us if it worked for you.

Muito obrigado, Mazzaropi.

I will try later and will contact you.

Regards,

Jon

Hi Jonny,

Am Sat, 23 Feb 2013 14:48:19 +0000 schrieb Jonny B:

I have three or four columns of figures, and need to find a way of
taking the two highest amounts, whichever column they may be in, and
adding them together, with the sum displayed in a fourth column.

So, for example, in the first line 15, 18 and 22 would give me a sum of
30

and in the second line 21, 20 and 12 would give me 41, etc.

if you only have 3 columns you can use:
=SUM(A1:C1)-MIN(A1:C1)
If you have 4 columns:
=MAX(A1:D1)+LARGE(A1:D1,2)


Regards
Claus Busch
--
Win XP PRof SP2 / Vista Ultimate SP2
Office 2003 SP2 /2007 Ultimate SP2

Perfect, mazzaropi. Thank you for such a quick reply.

Hope to contact again one day.

Best wishes from England.

Jon

I feel glad to help you.
Best wishes from Brazil

On Sat, 23 Feb 2013 14:48:19 +0000, Jonny B wrote:
Thanks in advance for being there and helping. I'm Ok with the basics of
Excel, and indeed some years ago got quite good with bits of it, but am
struggling with something at home now, as I have no manual, and I
haven't needed Excel for some time so I feel like a beginner again. I
can't even find a manual online, and I thought surely that MS would have
a helping copy of the manual somewhere!

<rant
One would think, but if it exists I've been unable to find it.
Whatever one may think of the features, the help system in Excel
seems to get more and more frustrating in every release. I can
understand why people go and buy books to figure out how to use the
damn thing.
</rant

I have three or four columns of figures, and need to find a way of
taking the two highest amounts, whichever column they may be in, and
adding them together, with the sum displayed in a fourth column.

The LARGE function is what you want.

Your example makes no sense without your file (and 18+22=40, not 30),
and attachments don't work in a text newsgroup like this one, but let
me give you a simple example.

Suppose that A1:C42 contain your numbers. Put this formula in cell
D1:

=LARGE(A1:C1,1)+LARGE(A1:C1,2)

and then click and drag down to fill D2 through D42.


--
Stan Brown, Oak Road Systems, Tompkins County, New York, USA
http://OakRoadSystems.com
Shikata ga nai...

hi Jonny,

Am Sat, 23 Feb 2013 20:53:32 +0100 schrieb Claus Busch:

if you only have 3 columns you can use:
=SUM(A1:C1)-MIN(A1:C1)
If you have 4 columns:
=MAX(A1:D1)+LARGE(A1:D1,2)

another way:
=SUM(LARGE(A1:D1,{1,2}))


Regards
Claus Busch
--
Win XP PRof SP2 / Vista Ultimate SP2
Office 2003 SP2 /2007 Ultimate SP2

Thanks also to Stan and Claus for their posts. You are all very kind!

Whilst I am on this subject, would it be possible easily to work out a %age difference? It would be helpful to see how the figures have improved over time.

For example, if the figures show (out of a total possible of 30 points for each figure)

Columns A-C (being the years 2011, 2012, 2013)
Row 1 - 8, 10, 17
Row 2 - 12, 15, 25

it would be good to be able to how in columns E & F that the improvement between 2011 and 2013 has been x% and that the improvement between 2012 and 2013 has been y%.

I'd be grateful for advice on the best way to do this, if anyone has time to post

Cheers,

Jon.