Basic Functions
Beginner
AVERAGE Function
The number you quote when someone asks what a typical month costs.
Task:
You are putting next year's budget together and need one monthly figure for electricity. Six invoices are in front of you. Put their average in B8.
Learning Objectives:
- Use AVERAGE over a range
- Avoid dividing by a hardcoded count
- Turn several periods into one planning figure
Hints
Solve without hints for +5 XP
The data in this exercise
This is the grid you start with. Cell references in the task — B6, C2 — point at the row numbers and column letters below.
| A | B | |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Month | Electricity |
| 2 | April | 218 |
| 3 | May | 196 |
| 4 | June | 174 |
| 5 | July | 168 |
| 6 | August | 181 |
| 7 | September | 203 |
| 8 | Average |
What this exercise teaches (contains the answer)
AVERAGE skips empty cells rather than counting them as zero, which is why it is safer than SUM divided by a hardcoded 6. If one month had never been invoiced, dividing by 6 yourself would quietly understate the budget.