Here’s how to use it.
Finding the Middle Value With the MEDIAN Function
To make it easier to measure central tendency, Google Spreadsheets has a number of functions that will calculate the more commonly used average values. These include:
The MEDIAN function finds the median or middle value in a list of numbers. The AVERAGE function finds the arithmetic mean for a list of numbers. The MODE function finds the most commonly occurring value in a list of numbers.
The MEDIAN Function’s Syntax and Arguments
A function’s syntax refers to the layout of the function and includes the function’s name, brackets, comma separators, and arguments.
The syntax for the MEDIAN function is:
=MEDIAN (number_1, number_2, …number_30)
number_1 - (required) the data to be included in calculating the median
number_2:number_30 - (optional) additional data values to be included in the median calculations.
The arguments can contain:
a list of numbers; cell references to the location of the data in the worksheet; a range of cell references; or a named range.
Finding the Median Mathematically
It’s easiest to find a median for an odd number of values. For example, the median of a set containing the numbers 2,3, and 4 is 3. With an even number of values, you calculate the median by finding the average for the two middle values. For example, you’d calculate the median for the numbers 2,3,4,5, by averaging the middle two numbers, 3 and 4: that results in a median of 3.5.
How to Enter the MEDIAN Function
Once you’ve entered your data set into a spreadsheet, here’s how to enter the function to calculate the median:
Blank Cells vs. Zero
The MEDIAN function ignores empty cells but not ones containing the numeral 0. So for the set (4, 6, [empty cell], 8), the median would be 6 because the function reads that set as (4, 6, 8). The set (4, 6, 0, 8), however, would have a median of 5, because the function places all of the values it’s analyzing into ascending order. So it would find the average of the middle two values in the adjusted set (0, 4, 6, 8).
