Analyzing top n (or bottom m) items is an important part of any data analysis exercise. In this article, we are going to learn Excel formulas to help you with that.
Let’s say you are the lead analyst at a large retail chain in Ohio, USA. You are looking at the latest sales data for all the 300 stores. You want to calculate the total sales of top 10 stores. Read on to learn the techniques.
Meet the data
So here is the data we have. It is arranged in an Excel table, named Sales.
We need to answer to 2 questions.
- What is the sum of top n sales?
- What is the sum of top n sales for filtered data (say store=Dayton)?
Sum of top n sales
First let’s take a look the formula.
=SUMIFS(sales[Revenues],sales[Revenues],">="&LARGE(sales[Revenues],n))
[Related: using structural references in Excel]
How does this formula work?
There are 2 components in this formula:
- We need to sum up revenues column
- Such that, revenue >= top nth revenue
Finding the top nth value:
This is where LARGE formula helps. It looks at the revenue column and returns nth value.
Sum of top n values thru SUMIFS:
Then, SUMIFS formula calculates the total revenues where revenue >= top nth value.
[Related: Introduction to SUMIFS formula]
Sum of top n sales in filtered data
This one is tricky. First, we will add an extra column to the sales table. You can later hide this if you want.
This column just tells us whether a particular store is hidden or visible (ie filtered away or not).
Use the formula,
=SUBTOTAL(3, [@Store]) = 1 in the new column. This will be TRUE if a row is visible and FALSE if a row is filtered away.
See below illustration to understand the formula.
Next, we can use below formula to calculate the total of top n sales in filtered data:
=SUMIFS(sales[Revenues],sales[Visible?],TRUE, sales[Revenues],">="&AGGREGATE(14,5,sales[Revenues],n))
How does this formula work?
Again, we are using SUMIFS formula, but with 2 conditions.
- Store should be visible
- Revenue >= top nth revenue in visible stores
To calculate the top n value of a visible stores, we use AGGREGATE formula.
AGGREGATE(14,5,sales[Revenues],n) – what does it do?
AGGREGATE formula takes 3 or 4 parameters.
- Calculation number – 14 corresponds to LARGE
- Which data to ignore – 5 corresponds to ‘ignore hidden rows’
- Data – Sales[Revenues]
- n – optional parameter for LARGE or SMALL calculations
So, our AGGREGATE(14,5,sales[Revenues],n) formula will return top nth value among the filtered data.
Once we know that value, we just use SUMIFS to sum up all values greater than or equal to it.
Download Example Workbook
Click here to download the sum of top 10 values workbook. Play with the formulas to learn more. Also, attempt the homework problems and post your answers in comments.
Your home work – 2 challenges:
So now that you understood how to calculate sum of top n values, I have 2 home work problems.
- What is the sum of bottom 10 values excluding zero values?
- What is the sum of bottom 10 values in filtered list, excluding zeros?
Go ahead and post your answers as comments.
6 more tips on analyzing top n values
Here are few more ways to analyze with top /bottom n values.
- Sum of top 3 values that meet a criteria
- Show top 10 values in dashboards using pivot tables
- Calculating average of top 5 values
- Create a top X chart
- Highlight top 10 values using conditional formatting
- Find out nth largest value that meets a criteria using array formulas
This post is part of our Awesome August Excel Festival.
15 Responses to “Christmas Gift List – Set your budget and track gifts using Excel”
[...] Christmas Gift List – Set your budget and track gifts using Excel … [...]
I'm confused: if you spend $10, and your budget is $40, shouldn't the amount in the "Within Budget?" column stay black, since you didn't go over budget?
In other words, since we overspent on the electronic photo frame, shouldn't the $8 cell turn red?
@JP.. maybe Steven is encouraging consumerism... ?
I havent realized it earlier, but now I see it. If you unprotect the sheet, you can change the formula in Column I to =IF(G13=0;" ";F13-G13) from =IF(G13=0;" ";G13-F13), that should correct the behavior.
Thanks Chandoo. I thought of making a shopping list spreadsheet for Christmas, but this is neat so I think I'll use this instead.
Chandoo & Steven thanks for this spreadsheet. But for the sake of a person who has been staring at this megaformula in vain for the last 40 mins and not afraid to ask, would it be possible for you to walk us through the logic used here?
=SUM(SUMPRODUCT(SUBTOTAL(3,OFFSET($K$13:$K$62,ROW($K$13:$K$62)-MIN(ROW($K$13:$K$62)),0,1)),--($K$13:$K$62="-"))+SUMPRODUCT(SUBTOTAL(3,OFFSET($K$13:$K$62,ROW($K$13:$K$62)-MIN(ROW($K$13:$K$62)),0,1)),--($K$13:$K$62="0")))&" / "&SUBTOTAL(2,$G$13:$G$62)
Thanks Chandoo.. This is one of the best budget spreadsheets I've ever seen.. The Arrays are out of this world!! And it's FREE!!
Chandoo, can you tell us more about Steven? Does he have his own site?
JP, I think Chandoo changed it when he changed the currency formatting from £ to $, a negative figure is a good thing in this case. But don't change the formulas, the overbudget and under budget won't work properly if you do. Also Chandoo I think you've accidentally broke the conditional formatting for the alternating row colouring the formula is different to the version I sent you. As for the megaformula chrisham, it gave me a headache trying to get it all working, so I will let Chandoo talk you through it.
Hi,
In cells I6 and I7, I understand that subtotal together with offset function returns an array of ones after which, the sumproduct function gives the desired result.
But I’m not able to figure out the reason for using an array in I8 to return the most expensive gift.
Can’t the formula be just
“=VLOOKUP(SUBTOTAL(4,$G$13:$G$62),$G$13:$J$62,4,0)”
Savithri, Cell I8 needs the array, if the formula was “=VLOOKUP(SUBTOTAL(4,$G$13:$G$62),$G$13:$J$62,4,0)” it would find the highest price from the filtered range (i.e. highest actual in filtered range is $50) BUT then return the first person with that actual, not looking in just the filtered range (so first person on the list with a $50 actual.)
To see what I mean, change the formula, then change all the actuals to $50 then filter for baby, it lists the first name on the list.
But a good question 🙂
Thank you. I now realise that the array is used to get the ‘filtered range’ instead of the entire range, as table array for look up value.
[...] Download This Template [...]
this looks like an awesome excel sheet!! is there anyway i can get it emailed to me unprotected? for some reason, i am unable to download it 🙁 help!!
Hi I also can not download to a mac as the sheet is protected any help would be great
[...] to send her a pricey present. Rather, send a card with a picture of your child. Here’s a cool Excel sheet that will help you estimate your budget per person and let you track [...]
[...] husband and I pour/poor over the Christmas spreadsheet (yes, I do know how dorky that sounds, but we’re not the only ones!), figuring out who should give what to whom. We live at a distance from most of our family, so it [...]