MINA
Quirk foundCategory: Statistical · Last tested 2026-09-01
Real compatibility results for the MINA 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 MINA’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 MINA working in Google Sheets?
MINA 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
-
=MINA("abc",5) on
Excel for the web returned
#VALUE!, but the documented/expected
result is 0.
Provenance
Verbatim from Microsoft's MINA page: 'Arguments that contain text or FALSE evaluate as 0 (zero)'. Under that rule the literal "abc" becomes 0, which is smaller than 5. MIN's page carries the opposite rule, so this case checks the A-variant rule is applied; MISMATCH vs expected: expected 0, got '#VALUE!'
-
=MINA("abc",5) on
Google Sheets returned
#VALUE!, but the documented/expected
result is 0.
Provenance
Verbatim from Microsoft's MINA page: 'Arguments that contain text or FALSE evaluate as 0 (zero)'. Under that rule the literal "abc" becomes 0, which is smaller than 5. MIN's page carries the opposite rule, so this case checks the A-variant rule is applied; 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| =MINA(A1:A5) | Microsoft's documented example: FALSE in the range evaluates to 0, which is the smallest value | 0 | 0ProvenanceMicrosoft's worked example for this exact data returns 0, explained on the page as 'Because a value of FALSE evaluates to 0, it is the smallest'. MIN over the same range would return 0.2, because MIN ignores logicals in a reference |
Matched |
| =MINA(A1:A3) | DIVERGENCE PROBE: all-positive numbers plus a text cell -- Excel counts the text as 0, which becomes the minimum | 0 | 0ProvenanceMicrosoft's MINA page carries the same self-contradicting pair as MAXA ('text ... evaluate as 0' vs 'text values in the array or reference are ignored'). We assert the text-evaluates-as-0 reading, which AVERAGEA's worked example confirms for the identical wording. Under that reading the answer is 0 (0 < 3); under the 'ignored' reading it would be 3. This case records which reading the engine implements |
Matched |
| =MINA(A1:A2) | A range of logical TRUEs is a range of 1s | 1 | 1ProvenanceBoth cells evaluate to 1, so the minimum is 1 |
Matched |
| =MINA(A1:A4) | Truly empty cells are ignored rather than counted as 0 | 4 | 4ProvenanceExcel documents empty cells as ignored by MINA; if blanks counted as 0 the answer would be 0, so this distinguishes blank handling from text handling |
Matched |
| =MINA("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 MINA page: 'Arguments that contain text or FALSE evaluate as 0 (zero)'. Under that rule the literal "abc" becomes 0, which is smaller than 5. MIN's page carries the opposite rule, so this case checks the A-variant rule is applied |
Mismatch |
| =MINA(NA()) | An error value passed as an argument propagates instead of being coerced | #N/A | #N/AProvenanceError values are not coerced by MINA; NA() produces #N/A and that error is the result |
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| =MINA(A1:A5) | Microsoft's documented example: FALSE in the range evaluates to 0, which is the smallest value | 0 | 0ProvenanceMicrosoft's worked example for this exact data returns 0, explained on the page as 'Because a value of FALSE evaluates to 0, it is the smallest'. MIN over the same range would return 0.2, because MIN ignores logicals in a reference |
Matched |
| =MINA(A1:A3) | DIVERGENCE PROBE: all-positive numbers plus a text cell -- Excel counts the text as 0, which becomes the minimum | 0 | 0ProvenanceMicrosoft's MINA page carries the same self-contradicting pair as MAXA ('text ... evaluate as 0' vs 'text values in the array or reference are ignored'). We assert the text-evaluates-as-0 reading, which AVERAGEA's worked example confirms for the identical wording. Under that reading the answer is 0 (0 < 3); under the 'ignored' reading it would be 3. This case records which reading the engine implements |
Matched |
| =MINA(A1:A2) | A range of logical TRUEs is a range of 1s | 1 | 1ProvenanceBoth cells evaluate to 1, so the minimum is 1 |
Matched |
| =MINA(A1:A4) | Truly empty cells are ignored rather than counted as 0 | 4 | 4ProvenanceExcel documents empty cells as ignored by MINA; if blanks counted as 0 the answer would be 0, so this distinguishes blank handling from text handling |
Matched |
| =MINA("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 MINA page: 'Arguments that contain text or FALSE evaluate as 0 (zero)'. Under that rule the literal "abc" becomes 0, which is smaller than 5. MIN's page carries the opposite rule, so this case checks the A-variant rule is applied |
Mismatch |
| =MINA(NA()) | An error value passed as an argument propagates instead of being coerced | #N/A | #N/AProvenanceError values are not coerced by MINA; NA() produces #N/A and that error is the result |
Matched |
LibreOffice Calc 25.8.7.3 (tested 2026-08-31)
| Formula | Description | Result | Expected | Verdict |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| =MINA(A1:A5) | Microsoft's documented example: FALSE in the range evaluates to 0, which is the smallest value | False | 0ProvenanceMicrosoft's worked example for this exact data returns 0, explained on the page as 'Because a value of FALSE evaluates to 0, it is the smallest'. MIN over the same range would return 0.2, because MIN ignores logicals in a reference |
Matched |
| =MINA(A1:A3) | DIVERGENCE PROBE: all-positive numbers plus a text cell -- Excel counts the text as 0, which becomes the minimum | 0 | 0ProvenanceMicrosoft's MINA page carries the same self-contradicting pair as MAXA ('text ... evaluate as 0' vs 'text values in the array or reference are ignored'). We assert the text-evaluates-as-0 reading, which AVERAGEA's worked example confirms for the identical wording. Under that reading the answer is 0 (0 < 3); under the 'ignored' reading it would be 3. This case records which reading the engine implements |
Matched |
| =MINA(A1:A2) | A range of logical TRUEs is a range of 1s | True | 1ProvenanceBoth cells evaluate to 1, so the minimum is 1 |
Matched |
| =MINA(A1:A4) | Truly empty cells are ignored rather than counted as 0 | 4 | 4ProvenanceExcel documents empty cells as ignored by MINA; if blanks counted as 0 the answer would be 0, so this distinguishes blank handling from text handling |
Matched |
| =MINA("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 MINA page: 'Arguments that contain text or FALSE evaluate as 0 (zero)'. Under that rule the literal "abc" becomes 0, which is smaller than 5. MIN's page carries the opposite rule, so this case checks the A-variant rule is applied |
Matched |
| =MINA(NA()) | An error value passed as an argument propagates instead of being coerced | #N/A | #N/AProvenanceError values are not coerced by MINA; NA() produces #N/A and that error is the result |
Matched |
Docs & syntax
- Excel (desktop): official documentation
- Google Sheets: official documentation
- LibreOffice Calc: official documentation
Where MINA 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.