I want to know how to write a spreadsheet formula that will do the
following calculations, all numbers are entered at random. After
entering 2 numbers provide the average, after entering 3 numbers give
the average of the lowest 2, after 4 enteries the average of the
lowest 3, after 5 enteries average of lowest 4, etc.

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Clarification of Question by average-ga on 22 Mar 2006 12:53 PST

Thanks for your response, however your formula does not give the
desired result. Example: 95+85+88+92+94=454-95=359/5=71.80, I want
this result 95  85+88+92+94=359/4=89.75. (after 5 enteries the average
of the lowest 4)

=IF(COUNT(A1:A999)=2,(AVERAGE(A1:A999)),AVERAGE((SUM(A1:A999)-LARGE(A1:A999,1))/(COUNT(A1:A999)-1)))

Input all the values into the A Column for this to work.

I'm not sure why it gives you the wrong result.  When I plgged your 5
entries in, it gave me the answer 89.75.

When I type in 1,2,3,4,5   the result is 2.5
When I type in 1,2,3,4,15  the result is still 2.5

The formula I provided definately calculates the average of all but
the largest number of the series.

=(SUM(A:A)-MAX(A:A))/(COUNT(A:A)-1)

put all in the A column it should work like you want ....

Jumbo,

I was wondering if there was a way to capture the entire A column.  I
never knew about (A:A), very useful.
Unfortunately your equation doesn't take into consideration what the
questioner wants when only 2 numbers are inputted.

Jack,

Please accept my apology for my mistake. I did copy-paste a second
time and the formula worked as required.