Statistical Functions
Intermediate
MODE Function
The value that actually comes up most, which an average will never give you.
Task:
You are deciding which pack size to keep on the shelf. Put the pack size customers order most often in B8.
Learning Objectives:
- Find the most frequent value with MODE
- Recognise categorical data written as numbers
- See when a mean is meaningless
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 | Order | Pack size |
| 2 | O-1 | 12 |
| 3 | O-2 | 24 |
| 4 | O-3 | 12 |
| 5 | O-4 | 48 |
| 6 | O-5 | 12 |
| 7 | O-6 | 24 |
| 8 | Most common |
What this exercise teaches (contains the answer)
The mean order is 22, and 22 is not a pack size anybody can order. That is what MODE is for: when the numbers are really categories, the average lands in the gap between them and describes nothing that exists. Stocking the 12 is a decision you can act on; stocking 22 is not.