Formula Purpose:

1. This function takes a series of letters and returns the average of them, i.e., the average of A, B, C is B.

Examples of where this function shines:

1. The only application that I can see for this formula is for averaging grades. If you know another, please click here and send me an email to let me know!

Formula Weakness(es):

1. It only works on a single contiguous range on a worksheet, not multiple ranges.
2. Must remember to enter as an array formula.
3. Only operates on the first character in each cell.

Versions Tested:

This formula has been tested with Excel 2003, but should work with Excel 97 or higher.

The Formula (array entered):

{=CHAR(ROUND(AVERAGE(IF(ISTEXT(A1:B1),CODE(UPPER(A1:B1)),"")),0))}

1. In order to use this formula, copy it to your worksheet, without the curly braces, change the two references to the range (A1:B1) to your range, and confirm the formula with CTRL+SHFT+Enter to array-enter it.

How it works (from the inside out):

1. The IF function contains three parts:
2. The ISTEXT function ensures that only text characters are passed to the function. If the item is blank or numeric, it is ignored (replaced with a "").
3. The CODE function converts the submitted text character into its ANSI equivalent number.
4. The UPPER function is used to convert all submitted characters to upper case. Since upper- and lower-case characters are, in fact, different ("a" and "A" have different ANSI values), they cannot be compared to each other properly unless they are all of a consistent case.
5. The AVERAGE function computes the average of the results passed to it by the aforementioned IF function.
6. The ROUND function rounds the result of the AVERAGE function to no decimal places.
7. The CHAR function converts the rounded number into a letter.

The End Result:

1. The following image shows a few different applications of the formula: