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Excel is an incredibly powerful and versatile tool for data manipulation and analysis. One of its many capabilities is the ability to calculate the average of a set of values in a row or column. This is useful for summarizing data, and making predictions about future trends. In this article, we will explore how to calculate the average of the last N values in a row or column in Excel. We will discuss the different methods available, and provide examples to help you understand how to use them for your own data analysis tasks.
You can use the following formulas in Excel to calculate the average of the last n values in a row or column:
Formula 1: Calculate Average of Last N Values in Column
=AVERAGE(OFFSET(A2,COUNT(A2:A11)-5,0,5))
This particular formula calculates the average of the last 5 values in the column range A2:A11.
Formula 2: Calculate Average of Last N Values in Row
=AVERAGE(OFFSET(A2,0,COUNT(B1:F1)-1,,-3))
This particular formula calculates the average of the last 3 values in the row range B1:F1.
The following examples show how to use each formula in practice.
Example 1: Calculate Average of Last N Values in Column
Suppose we would like to calculate the average of the last 5 values in column A:
We can type the following formula into cell C2 to do so:
=AVERAGE(OFFSET(A2,COUNT(A2:A11)-5,0,5))
The following screenshot shows how to use this formula in practice:
We can see that the average of the last 5 values in the range A2:A11 is 22.6.
We can verify this is correct by manually calculating the average of the last 5 values in this range:
This matches the value calculated by our formula.
To calculate the average of a different number of last values in the column, simply replace the 5‘s in the formula with a different number.
For example, we can calculate the average of the last 3 values in the range by using the following formula:
=AVERAGE(OFFSET(A2,COUNT(A2:A11)-3,0,3))
Example 2: Calculate Average of Last N Values in Row
Suppose we would like to calculate the average of the last 3 values in the first row of this Excel sheet:
We can type the following formula into cell B3 to do so:
=AVERAGE(OFFSET(B1,0,COUNT(B1:F1)-1,,-3))
The following screenshot shows how to use this formula in practice:
We can see that the average of the last 3 values in the range B1:F1 is 24.33.
We can verify this is correct by manually calculating the average of the last 3 values in this range:
Average = (40 + 16 + 17) / 3 = 24.33
This matches the value calculated by our formula.
To calculate the average of a different number of last values in the column, simply replace the 3 in the formula with a different number.
For example, we can calculate the average of the last 4 values in the range by using the following formula:
=AVERAGE(OFFSET(B1,0,COUNT(B1:F1)-1,,-4))
In conclusion, the formulas provided in this article can be used to calculate the average of the last n values in a row or column in Excel. With a little bit of practice, anyone can easily master these formulas and apply them to their own data sets. With these formulas, you will be able to quickly and accurately calculate the average of the last n values in a row or column.