RANK function

This article describes the formula syntax and usage of the RANK function in Microsoft Excel.

Description

Returns the rank of a number in a list of numbers. The rank of a number is its size relative to other values in a list. (If you were to sort the list, the rank of the number would be its position.)

Important: This function has been replaced with one or more new functions that may provide improved accuracy and whose names better reflect their usage. Although this function is still available for backward compatibility, you should consider using the new functions from now on, because this function may not be available in future versions of Excel.

For more information about the new functions, see RANK.AVG function and RANK.EQ function.

Syntax

RANK(number,ref,[order])

The RANK function syntax has the following arguments:

• Number     Required. The number whose rank you want to find.

• Ref     Required. An array of, or a reference to, a list of numbers. Nonnumeric values in ref are ignored.

• Order     Optional. A number specifying how to rank number.

  If order is 0 (zero) or omitted, Microsoft Excel ranks number as if ref were a list sorted in descending order.

  If order is any nonzero value, Microsoft Excel ranks number as if ref were a list sorted in ascending order.

Remarks

• RANK gives duplicate numbers the same rank. However, the presence of duplicate numbers affects the ranks of subsequent numbers. For example, in a list of integers sorted in ascending order, if the number 10 appears twice and has a rank of 5, then 11 would have a rank of 7 (no number would have a rank of 6).

• For some purposes one might want to use a definition of rank that takes ties into account. In the previous example, one would want a revised rank of 5.5 for the number 10. This can be done by adding the following correction factor to the value returned by RANK. This correction factor is appropriate both for the case where rank is computed in descending order (order = 0 or omitted) or ascending order (order = nonzero value).

  Correction factor for tied ranks=[COUNT(ref) + 1 – RANK(number, ref, 0) – RANK(number, ref, 1)]/2.

  In the following example, RANK(A2,A1:A5,1) equals 3. The correction factor is (5 + 1 – 2 – 3)/2 = 0.5 and the revised rank that takes ties into account is 3 + 0.5 = 3.5. If number occurs only once in ref, the correction factor will be 0, since RANK would not have to be adjusted for a tie.

Example

Copy the example data in the following table, and paste it in cell A1 of a new Excel worksheet. For formulas to show results, select them, press F2, and then press Enter. If you need to, you can adjust the column widths to see all the data.

Data
7
3.5
3.5
1
2
Formula	Description (Result)	Result
=RANK(A3,A2:A6,1)	Rank of 3.5 in the list above (3)	3
=RANK(A2,A2:A6,1)	Rank of 7 in the list above (5)	5