Divide by the minimum non-zero number in a range of cells

Hi,

Or after some thought how about just

=SUMPRODUCT(MIN(2*(A1:A8=0)+A1:A8))

--
If this helps, please click the Yes button.

Cheers,
Shane Devenshire


"JoeU2004" wrote:

"Shane Devenshire" wrote:
=SUMPRODUCT(MIN(9^9*(A1:A8=0)+A1:A8))

Why 9^9? Why not something more straight-forward like 10^10? That can
written as the constant 1E10?

And why is this any better than Biff's (T.Valko's) formulation that uses
MIN(INDEX(...))? I presume you saw his, since you posted your follow-up
more than 4 hours later to the same news server, I believe.

In any case, as I noted regarding Biff's formula, expressions of this ilk
limit MAX(A1:A8) to whatever factor you use, be it 9^9, 1E10 or 1E100. So
it would behoove you to use a larger factor like 1E10 or even 1E100.

And to that end, I think it would be better to replace any constant factor
(e.g. 9^9) with 2*max(A1:A8). That limits MAX(A1:A8) to 2^1023, about half
the biggest value allowed.

I also noted that we can extend the range of values for MAX(A1:A8) by
replacing the factor 2 with a smaller factor larger than 1; the smallest
constant factor is 1.00000000000001.

But none of this seems to be worth the trouble just to avoid the
straight-forward array formula solution, as much as I don't like array
formulas myself.


----- original message -----

"Shane Devenshire" wrote in
message ...
Well that's pretty interesting, unfortunately I cleared my test range and
can't duplicate the original results.

Alternative:

=SUMPRODUCT(MIN(9^9*(A1:A8=0)+A1:A8))

hopefully this is a little better.

--
If this helps, please click the Yes button.

Cheers,
Shane Devenshire


"Shane Devenshire" wrote:

Hi,

If you don't want an array formula try this

=SUMPRODUCT((A1:A70)*(MIN(A1:A7)=A1:A7)*A1:A7)

--
If this helps, please click the Yes button.

Cheers,
Shane Devenshire


"Opus" wrote:

I need to find the minimum non-zero number in a range of cells that
contains
some zeroes. So that I can divide by the minimum number. Any ideas?

If I just use the MIN function, it returns a value of 0, then when my
formula divides by that I get the divide by zero error.

Hi,

Althought this turned out to be a very interested thread for all of us, I
recommend that in the future you post the actual question you are trying to
solve. Your solution of using a hidden column/ an extra column of course is
not necessary. You can modify the single cell solutions we have developed
for your problem to work for your real problem. Now you are doing a max if.

--
If this helps, please click the Yes button.

Cheers,
Shane Devenshire


"Opus" wrote:

Thank you all for your replies. This is what occured to me late last night
and what I wound up doing:

I realized that what I was looking for here was the Maximum number resulting
from dividing a constant by the Minimum number in a range. So I did

=IF(A1=0,"",Constant/A1)

and copied it for each cell in my original range creating a range of results
in a separate column B that I later hid. This weeded out all the cells
containing zero.

I then used

=Max(B1:B10)

to obtain the result I was actually after.


"Opus" wrote:

I need to find the minimum non-zero number in a range of cells that contains
some zeroes. So that I can divide by the minimum number. Any ideas?

If I just use the MIN function, it returns a value of 0, then when my
formula divides by that I get the divide by zero error.

"Shane Devenshire" wrote:
Or after some thought how about just
=SUMPRODUCT(MIN(2*(A1:A8=0)+A1:A8))

Perhaps you should do less "thought" and more testing. Try A1:A8 equal to
{0,3,3,3,3,3,3,0}. Klunk!

Anyway, I think the horse is dead.


----- original message -----

"Shane Devenshire" wrote in
message ...
Hi,

Or after some thought how about just

=SUMPRODUCT(MIN(2*(A1:A8=0)+A1:A8))

--
If this helps, please click the Yes button.

Cheers,
Shane Devenshire


"JoeU2004" wrote:

"Shane Devenshire" wrote:
=SUMPRODUCT(MIN(9^9*(A1:A8=0)+A1:A8))

Why 9^9? Why not something more straight-forward like 10^10? That can
written as the constant 1E10?

And why is this any better than Biff's (T.Valko's) formulation that uses
MIN(INDEX(...))? I presume you saw his, since you posted your follow-up
more than 4 hours later to the same news server, I believe.

In any case, as I noted regarding Biff's formula, expressions of this ilk
limit MAX(A1:A8) to whatever factor you use, be it 9^9, 1E10 or 1E100.
So
it would behoove you to use a larger factor like 1E10 or even 1E100.

And to that end, I think it would be better to replace any constant
factor
(e.g. 9^9) with 2*max(A1:A8). That limits MAX(A1:A8) to 2^1023, about
half
the biggest value allowed.

I also noted that we can extend the range of values for MAX(A1:A8) by
replacing the factor 2 with a smaller factor larger than 1; the smallest
constant factor is 1.00000000000001.

But none of this seems to be worth the trouble just to avoid the
straight-forward array formula solution, as much as I don't like array
formulas myself.


----- original message -----

"Shane Devenshire" wrote in
message ...
Well that's pretty interesting, unfortunately I cleared my test range
and
can't duplicate the original results.

Alternative:

=SUMPRODUCT(MIN(9^9*(A1:A8=0)+A1:A8))

hopefully this is a little better.

--
If this helps, please click the Yes button.

Cheers,
Shane Devenshire


"Shane Devenshire" wrote:

Hi,

If you don't want an array formula try this

=SUMPRODUCT((A1:A70)*(MIN(A1:A7)=A1:A7)*A1:A7)

--
If this helps, please click the Yes button.

Cheers,
Shane Devenshire


"Opus" wrote:

I need to find the minimum non-zero number in a range of cells that
contains
some zeroes. So that I can divide by the minimum number. Any
ideas?

If I just use the MIN function, it returns a value of 0, then when
my
formula divides by that I get the divide by zero error.