Excel Function – LARGE

This is one of the rarely used functions in excel as many use it’s alternative Max().

Let’s first understand the difference between them so that we will come to know what are the situations where we can use Large instead of Max.

Max function returns the maximum value from the given range, where as Large function 1st sorts the given range internally and returns the i’th from the top.

What i mean is you can use Large function whenever you need to find out 2nd or 3rd largest value from a range or you can even find out sum of top 10 values using this function.

Let’s see the syntax and how to use this function:

Syntax: =Large(Range,i’th Value)

Example: I have a range from A1 to A10 containing some numbers and we need to find out values for following situations:

1. Largest value (even possible with Max function)
=Large(A1:A10,1) or =Max(A1:A10)
2. 2nd Largest Value
=Large(A1:A10,2)
3. 3rd Largest Value
=Large(A1:A10,3)
4. Sum of top 3 Values
=Sum(Large(A1:A10,{1,2,3}))

There are many other ways by which you can use this function in combination with sum and count so try it.

Note: There is also ‘Small‘ function, which works similar to this but exactly apposite way returning you nth smallest value from source array.

I would like if you comment on this article with your valuable suggestions and feedback.