How to calculate the range (max minus min)
✓ Verified in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3The spread of a data set — highest value minus lowest. A one-number measure of variability.
The formula
| App | Formula | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Excel | =MAX(A2:A6)-MIN(A2:A6) | Conditional range: =MAXIFS(...)-MINIFS(...). For range ignoring outliers, see percentile-based spread. |
| Google Sheets | =MAX(A2:A6)-MIN(A2:A6) | Identical. |
| LibreOffice Calc | =MAX(A2:A6)-MIN(A2:A6) | Identical. |
How it works
The statistical range is simply the largest value minus the smallest: 45 - 7 = 38. It's the quickest gauge of how spread out numbers are, but it only sees the two extremes, so a single outlier dominates it — for a sturdier spread use standard deviation or the interquartile range (QUARTILE(...,3)-QUARTILE(...,1)). For a range within categories, swap in MAXIFS and MINIFS with your condition.
Verified, not just documented
We ran =MAX(A2:A6)-MIN(A2:A6) in LibreOffice 25.8.7.3 (headless, with forced recalculation) and it returned 38 — exactly the expected result. Every formula here is confirmed by actually executing it.