MAXA
Quirk foundCategory: Statistical · Last tested 2026-09-01
Real compatibility results for the MAXA function: executed in Excel for the web, Google Sheets and LibreOffice Calc, with desktop Excel behavior from Microsoft’s official documentation (we do not run desktop Excel — Excel for the web is a different application and is executed separately). Syntax and links to that documentation are below.
Support matrix
| Engine | Documented | Live-tested | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|
| Excel (desktop) | Yes | No — documented only | n/a |
| Excel for the web | — | Yes (recalc, 2026-09-01) | Quirk found |
| Google Sheets | Yes | Yes (Drive import, 2026-08-31) | Quirk found |
| LibreOffice Calc | Yes | Yes (25.8.7.3, 2026-08-31) | Supported, behaves as documented |
LibreOffice version history
We executed the same test cases under each LibreOffice release to show exactly when MAXA’s support changed — not documentation claims, real results.
| LibreOffice version | Verdict | Tested |
|---|---|---|
| 24.2.0.3 | Supported, behaves as documented | 2026-08-31 |
| 24.8.7.2 | Supported, behaves as documented | 2026-08-31 |
| 25.2.0.3 | Supported, behaves as documented | 2026-08-31 |
| 25.8.7.3 | Supported, behaves as documented | 2026-08-31 |
Why isn’t MAXA working in Google Sheets?
MAXA runs in Google Sheets, but our executed cases show it does not match
Excel’s documented behavior on every input (the failing cases are listed on this page). If a
formula that behaves one way in Excel gives you a different answer in Sheets, compare your usage
against those cases before assuming your data is wrong.
Discovered quirks
-
=MAXA("abc",-5) on
Excel for the web returned
#VALUE!, but the documented/expected
result is 0.
Provenance
Verbatim from Microsoft's MAXA page: 'Arguments that contain text or FALSE evaluate as 0 (zero)'. Under that rule the literal "abc" becomes 0, which is larger than -5. (MAX's page carries the opposite rule -- text that cannot be translated into numbers causes an error -- so this case checks that an engine applies the A-variant rule and not MAX's); MISMATCH vs expected: expected 0, got '#VALUE!'
-
=MAXA("abc",-5) on
Google Sheets returned
#VALUE!, but the documented/expected
result is 0.
Provenance
Verbatim from Microsoft's MAXA page: 'Arguments that contain text or FALSE evaluate as 0 (zero)'. Under that rule the literal "abc" becomes 0, which is larger than -5. (MAX's page carries the opposite rule -- text that cannot be translated into numbers causes an error -- so this case checks that an engine applies the A-variant rule and not MAX's); MISMATCH vs expected: expected 0, got '#VALUE!'
Executed test cases
Excel for the web (executed 2026-09-01 via OneDrive recalculation)
These values come from Excel for the web, not from desktop Excel. They are two different implementations of the calculation engine, and this run measured only the web one: the corpus was uploaded to OneDrive as .xlsx, recalculated by Excel for the web on open, and downloaded again for readback. Excel for the web is a rolling service with no pinnable version, so the run is identified by its date. Where a value here disagrees with the Expected column — which is Microsoft’s documentation of the desktop product — we cannot tell you whether the web engine diverges from the desktop one or the documentation is wrong about both, because we do not run desktop Excel.
| Formula | Description | Result | Expected | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| =MAXA(A1:A5) | Microsoft's documented example: the largest value in a range where TRUE is counted as 1 | 1 | 1ProvenanceExcel documents MAXA as evaluating a logical TRUE in a range as 1, so the answer is 1 rather than 0.5; MAX over the same range would return 0.5 because MAX ignores logicals in ranges |
Matched |
| =MAXA(A1:A3) | DIVERGENCE PROBE: all-negative numbers plus a text cell -- Excel counts the text as 0, which becomes the maximum | 0 | 0ProvenanceMicrosoft's MAXA page carries two remarks that contradict each other for this exact input: 'Arguments that contain text or FALSE evaluate as 0 (zero)' and, one line later, 'Empty cells and text values in the array or reference are ignored'. We assert the text-evaluates-as-0 reading, because AVERAGEA's page carries the identical contradictory pair and settles it with a worked example (28/5 = 5.6) in which range text counts as 0. Under that reading the answer is 0 (0 > -3); under the 'ignored' reading it would be -3. The point of this case is to record which reading each engine actually implements |
Matched |
| =MAXA(A1:A3) | FALSE in a range is evaluated as 0, so it wins over negative numbers | 0 | 0ProvenanceExcel documents logical FALSE as 0 for MAXA; 0 > -1 so the maximum is 0 |
Matched |
| =MAXA(TRUE,0.5) | A logical typed directly as an argument is also coerced (TRUE -> 1) | 1 | 1ProvenanceExcel documents that MAXA evaluates TRUE as 1 whether it comes from a range or is typed as an argument |
Matched |
| =MAXA(A1:A4) | Truly empty cells are ignored (they are not counted as 0) | -2 | -2ProvenanceExcel documents empty cells in a reference as ignored by MAXA (this remark is not contradicted elsewhere on the page, unlike the text remark), so the maximum is the largest actual number, -2, and NOT 0 |
Matched |
| =MAXA("abc",-5) | A non-numeric string typed directly as an argument is documented as evaluating to 0, which then wins | #VALUE! | 0ProvenanceVerbatim from Microsoft's MAXA page: 'Arguments that contain text or FALSE evaluate as 0 (zero)'. Under that rule the literal "abc" becomes 0, which is larger than -5. (MAX's page carries the opposite rule -- text that cannot be translated into numbers causes an error -- so this case checks that an engine applies the A-variant rule and not MAX's) |
Mismatch |
| =MAXA(NA()) | An error value passed as an argument propagates instead of being coerced | #N/A | #N/AProvenanceError values are not among the things MAXA coerces; NA() produces #N/A and that error is the result of the whole expression |
Matched |
Google Sheets (executed 2026-08-31 via Drive import)
Google Sheets is a rolling service with no pinnable version, so this run is identified by its date. The corpus was imported to Drive as .xlsx, recalculated by Sheets, and exported back for readback.
| Formula | Description | Result | Expected | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| =MAXA(A1:A5) | Microsoft's documented example: the largest value in a range where TRUE is counted as 1 | 1 | 1ProvenanceExcel documents MAXA as evaluating a logical TRUE in a range as 1, so the answer is 1 rather than 0.5; MAX over the same range would return 0.5 because MAX ignores logicals in ranges |
Matched |
| =MAXA(A1:A3) | DIVERGENCE PROBE: all-negative numbers plus a text cell -- Excel counts the text as 0, which becomes the maximum | 0 | 0ProvenanceMicrosoft's MAXA page carries two remarks that contradict each other for this exact input: 'Arguments that contain text or FALSE evaluate as 0 (zero)' and, one line later, 'Empty cells and text values in the array or reference are ignored'. We assert the text-evaluates-as-0 reading, because AVERAGEA's page carries the identical contradictory pair and settles it with a worked example (28/5 = 5.6) in which range text counts as 0. Under that reading the answer is 0 (0 > -3); under the 'ignored' reading it would be -3. The point of this case is to record which reading each engine actually implements |
Matched |
| =MAXA(A1:A3) | FALSE in a range is evaluated as 0, so it wins over negative numbers | 0 | 0ProvenanceExcel documents logical FALSE as 0 for MAXA; 0 > -1 so the maximum is 0 |
Matched |
| =MAXA(TRUE,0.5) | A logical typed directly as an argument is also coerced (TRUE -> 1) | 1 | 1ProvenanceExcel documents that MAXA evaluates TRUE as 1 whether it comes from a range or is typed as an argument |
Matched |
| =MAXA(A1:A4) | Truly empty cells are ignored (they are not counted as 0) | -2 | -2ProvenanceExcel documents empty cells in a reference as ignored by MAXA (this remark is not contradicted elsewhere on the page, unlike the text remark), so the maximum is the largest actual number, -2, and NOT 0 |
Matched |
| =MAXA("abc",-5) | A non-numeric string typed directly as an argument is documented as evaluating to 0, which then wins | #VALUE! | 0ProvenanceVerbatim from Microsoft's MAXA page: 'Arguments that contain text or FALSE evaluate as 0 (zero)'. Under that rule the literal "abc" becomes 0, which is larger than -5. (MAX's page carries the opposite rule -- text that cannot be translated into numbers causes an error -- so this case checks that an engine applies the A-variant rule and not MAX's) |
Mismatch |
| =MAXA(NA()) | An error value passed as an argument propagates instead of being coerced | #N/A | #N/AProvenanceError values are not among the things MAXA coerces; NA() produces #N/A and that error is the result of the whole expression |
Matched |
LibreOffice Calc 25.8.7.3 (tested 2026-08-31)
| Formula | Description | Result | Expected | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| =MAXA(A1:A5) | Microsoft's documented example: the largest value in a range where TRUE is counted as 1 | 1 | 1ProvenanceExcel documents MAXA as evaluating a logical TRUE in a range as 1, so the answer is 1 rather than 0.5; MAX over the same range would return 0.5 because MAX ignores logicals in ranges |
Matched |
| =MAXA(A1:A3) | DIVERGENCE PROBE: all-negative numbers plus a text cell -- Excel counts the text as 0, which becomes the maximum | 0 | 0ProvenanceMicrosoft's MAXA page carries two remarks that contradict each other for this exact input: 'Arguments that contain text or FALSE evaluate as 0 (zero)' and, one line later, 'Empty cells and text values in the array or reference are ignored'. We assert the text-evaluates-as-0 reading, because AVERAGEA's page carries the identical contradictory pair and settles it with a worked example (28/5 = 5.6) in which range text counts as 0. Under that reading the answer is 0 (0 > -3); under the 'ignored' reading it would be -3. The point of this case is to record which reading each engine actually implements |
Matched |
| =MAXA(A1:A3) | FALSE in a range is evaluated as 0, so it wins over negative numbers | 0 | 0ProvenanceExcel documents logical FALSE as 0 for MAXA; 0 > -1 so the maximum is 0 |
Matched |
| =MAXA(TRUE,0.5) | A logical typed directly as an argument is also coerced (TRUE -> 1) | 1 | 1ProvenanceExcel documents that MAXA evaluates TRUE as 1 whether it comes from a range or is typed as an argument |
Matched |
| =MAXA(A1:A4) | Truly empty cells are ignored (they are not counted as 0) | -2 | -2ProvenanceExcel documents empty cells in a reference as ignored by MAXA (this remark is not contradicted elsewhere on the page, unlike the text remark), so the maximum is the largest actual number, -2, and NOT 0 |
Matched |
| =MAXA("abc",-5) | A non-numeric string typed directly as an argument is documented as evaluating to 0, which then wins | 0 | 0ProvenanceVerbatim from Microsoft's MAXA page: 'Arguments that contain text or FALSE evaluate as 0 (zero)'. Under that rule the literal "abc" becomes 0, which is larger than -5. (MAX's page carries the opposite rule -- text that cannot be translated into numbers causes an error -- so this case checks that an engine applies the A-variant rule and not MAX's) |
Matched |
| =MAXA(NA()) | An error value passed as an argument propagates instead of being coerced | #N/A | #N/AProvenanceError values are not among the things MAXA coerces; NA() produces #N/A and that error is the result of the whole expression |
Matched |
Docs & syntax
- Excel (desktop): official documentation
- Google Sheets: official documentation
- LibreOffice Calc: official documentation
Where MAXA behaves differently
- MAXA, MINA, AVERAGEA, VARPA vs MAX, MIN, AVERAGE, VAR.P
The A-variants count text as 0 and TRUE as 1; the plain ones ignore them. Executed: LibreOffice implements all four A-variants faithfully, but its VAR.P returns 8.2222 on {4, 8, TRUE} where Microsoft documents 4 and Google Sheets returns 4 - a silent wrong number in all four builds tested. - When the documentation is wrong: 29 vendor doc defects found by execution
Independent derivation across 586 executed functions found 29 places where a vendor's own page is contradicted by its own inputs, its own table, or the live engine: 23 Microsoft, 5 Google, 1 LibreOffice. Includes T.INV.2T's doubly-wrong Remark, DISC's stale figure, ISDATE's page against the live engine, and RAWSUBTRACT's help against LibreOffice's own result.