Absolute with Large function

corinnejacobson

New Member
Joined
Feb 6, 2014
Messages
11
I have a column of numbers both positive and negative. I want to get a table of the 4 largest absolute values WITHOUT having to create another column of those numbers as absolute values.
I tried LARGE(abs(A1:A34),1) - then 2,3,4 - but it came back #NUM. Any thoughts?
 

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The formula needs to be confirmed by pressing and holding the Ctrl and Shift keys, then pressing Enter.
 
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The formula needs to be confirmed by pressing and holding the Ctrl and Shift keys, then pressing Enter.

That works - except it pulls in the negative values as positives, I still want them to be negative when they populate the table.
 
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One way:

C​
D​
E​
F​
G​
H​
1​
1​
98​
-99​
99​
C1: Input
2​
2​
92​
-98​
98​
D1: =LARGE($A$1:$A$34, C1)
3​
3​
89​
-95​
95​
E1: =SMALL($A$1:$A$34, C1)
4​
4​
88​
-86​
88​
F1: =IF(D1>-E1, D1, -E1)

All formulas are confirmed normally.
 
Last edited:
Upvote 0
I think the easiest way is to just sort by absolute value:

A​
B​
C​
1​
value​
abs​
2​
-975​
975​
B2: =ABS(A2)
3​
-970​
970​
4​
962​
962​
5​
-932​
932​
6​
-897​
897​
7​
880​
880​
8​
-877​
877​
9​
-868​
868​
10​
868​
868​
11​
-853​
853​
12​
-819​
819​
13​
786​
786​
14​
-773​
773​
15​
-735​
735​
16​
-662​
662​
17​
-636​
636​
18​
-593​
593​
19​
-554​
554​
20​
-553​
553​
21​
545​
545​
22​
-518​
518​
23​
504​
504​
24​
488​
488​
25​
-424​
424​
26​
300​
300​
27​
292​
292​
28​
-262​
262​
29​
236​
236​
30​
-205​
205​
31​
152​
152​
32​
140​
140​
33​
95​
95​
34​
-85​
85​
35​
15​
15​
 
Upvote 0
So I used an IF statement on mine. =IF(ABS(Large(A1:A34,2))>ABS(SMALL(A1:A34,2)),LARGE(A1:A34,2,SMALL(A1:A34,2))

It's a little clunky but it works.
 
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