Comments on: Spreadsheet average help

Question: Spreadsheet average help

regicide is good for you — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 13:39:23 -0800

I'd like a spreadsheet (OpenOffice Calc) to give me the average of the numbers in a certain row that will be filled over a period of months, and I'd like the formula for the average to remain valid even as I fill it, cell by cell. How?

For instance, in month 2, cells A1 and B1 will have a number; cells C1-G1 will be empty. Cell H1 should display the average of A1 and B1. In month 3, C1 will have a number and D1-G1 will be empty; H1 should show the average of A1-C1, but without me changing the formula in H1 to divide by 3 instead of 2.

I want to be able to do this since I'm using many many different rows of data. I'm guessing this might be possible. Is there a formula to let the spreadsheet know to divide only by the number of non-empty cells in the row?

Thanks.

By: regicide is good for you

regicide is good for you — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 13:41:38 -0800

Oh - and not all the rows' data will start in the first month, nor will they necessarily fill up sequentially. Which maybe complicates things.

By: SBMike

SBMike — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 13:44:02 -0800

In excel, the COUNT function gives the number of non-empty cells in a given range. Not sure if there's something similar in OpenOffice, but it works great in excel.

By: inigo2

inigo2 — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 13:44:44 -0800

Will a filled-in entry ever be equal to zero?

By: Wolfdog

Wolfdog — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 13:47:47 -0800

At least in Excel, =AVERAGE(range) does exactly what you want, averaging only those cells that are nonempty.

By: plinth

plinth — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 13:48:52 -0800

just use AVERAGE(cell1:cell2)
it ignores empty cells.

By: inigo2

inigo2 — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 13:50:55 -0800

If the "AVERAGE" function works differently in OpenOffice (see Wolfdog's response), then an alternative is to do: SUM(range of cells) / COUNTA(range of cells). "COUNTA" gives you the count of non-empty cells.

By: regicide is good for you

regicide is good for you — Mon, 14 Jan 2008 13:57:09 -0800

Thank you. The help given by Calc's "function wizard" was less than obvious, though now I understand it.

Much appreciated. You have saved me a great amount of stupid-person work.