Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Excel versions: 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. If you are using a later version (Excel 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Excel, click here: Summing Only the Largest Portion of a Range.

Summing Only the Largest Portion of a Range

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated January 18, 2019)
This tip applies to Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003


Christian has a range of 18 cells that contain values. He would like to find the sum of the 12 largest values in that range and wonders how to accomplish the task.

There are several ways you can approach this problem. You could, for instance, filter the values so you only have the top twelve values, and then sum those. Other approaches involve using additional columns to store intermediate values, but I'll assume that you would prefer an approach that didn't use additional columns.

To start, let's assume that your range of 18 cells is A1:A18. You can use the LARGE function to find the largest values. For instance, using this formula would find the second-largest value in the range:

=LARGE(A1:A18,2)

It is the function's second parameter that specifies which largest value, in order, you want. Thus, you could find out the sum of the 12 largest values by using a formula such as this:

=LARGE(A1:A18,1)+LARGE(A1:A18,2)+LARGE(A1:A18,3)+LARGE(A1:A18,4)
+LARGE(A1:A18,5)+LARGE(A1:A18,6)+LARGE(A1:A18,7)+LARGE(A1:A18,8)
+LARGE(A1:A18,9)+LARGE(A1:A18,10)+LARGE(A1:A18,11)+LARGE(A1:A18,12)

There are shorter formulas you can use to accomplish the task, however. For instance, you could simply subtract the six smallest values from the sum of the range, in this manner:

=SUM(A1:A18)-SMALL(A1:A18,1)-SMALL(A1:A18,2)-SMALL(A1:A18,3)
-SMALL(A1:A18,4)-SMALL(A1:A18,5)-SMALL(A1:A18,6)

You can also, if you desire, use the SUMIF function to do a comparison of the values and sum them only if the criterion you specify is met. For instance, consider these two formulas:

=SUMIF(A1:A18,">="&LARGE(A1:A18,12))
=SUMIF(A1:A18,">"&SMALL(A1:A18,6))

The first formula will sum all the values that are greater than or equal to the twelfth largest value in the range. The second is similar in effect; it sums all the values that are greater than the sixth smallest value.

These two formulas work great if there are no duplicate values at the "boundary" established. If, however, there are more than one value that qualify as the twelfth largest or the sixth smallest, then the formulas won't return the sums you expect. In the first formula the sum will be too large (since all of the duplicate values are added to the sum) and the second formula the sum will be too small (since all of the duplicate values are excluded from the sum).

The way around this is to either go back to one of the earlier formulas (the ones that don't use SUMIF), or modify the SUMIF formula so that it takes the possibility of duplicate values into account:

=SUMIF(A1:A18,">"&LARGE(A1:A18,12))+LARGE(A1:A18,12)
*(12-COUNTIF(A1:A18,">"&LARGE(A1:A18,12)))

Perhaps the best formula to get the desired result places a twist on the earlier use of the LARGE function:

=SUM(LARGE(A1:A18,{1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12}))

This formula uses an array (the part within braces), but it is not an array formula. What it does is to use the array as the second parameter of the LARGE function, thus returning all twelve largest values. These are then summed and a single value returned.

ExcelTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Excel training. This tip (9420) applies to Microsoft Excel 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Excel (Excel 2007 and later) here: Summing Only the Largest Portion of a Range.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Deleting a Table

Tired of that old table taking up space in your document? You can get rid of it using a variety of techniques—some ...

Discover More

Adding Excel Information to a Web Page

Besides saving a worksheet as a complete Web page, you can also save smaller portions of your data to an existing Web ...

Discover More

Displaying Thumbnails and Full-Size Images

Sometimes images can be just too big to display in a document. Instead you may want to display a smaller, thumbnail-size ...

Discover More

Professional Development Guidance! Four world-class developers offer start-to-finish guidance for building powerful, robust, and secure applications with Excel. The authors show how to consistently make the right design decisions and make the most of Excel's powerful features. Check out Professional Excel Development today!

More ExcelTips (menu)

Segregating Numbers According to Their Sign

Remember your number line from your early years in school? Some numbers can be below zero (negative numbers) and others ...

Discover More

Adjusting Test Scores Proportionately

Teachers often grade on what is affectionately referred to as "the curve." The problem is, it can be a bit difficult to ...

Discover More

Alphabetic Column Designation

Want to know the letters assigned by Excel to a particular column? Excel normally deals with column numbers, but you can ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is two more than 1?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Excel that uses the menu interface (Excel 97, Excel 2000, Excel 2002, or Excel 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Excel, visit our ExcelTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Newest Tips
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in ExcelTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.