Ranking a List of Numbers

In this article, we will learn how to use Rank function in Microsoft Excel and where we need to use it in data.

We use Rank formula to return ranking of any number in the data. Mostly we use rank formula to show the ranking of students, sales agent, etc.

Let’s take an example and understand how to use rank formula in Excel

We have monthly sales data in Excel and we want to announce winner and top 5 runner up of the month according to the sales amount. To evaluate employee’s performance, we have to see the ranking of every employee and only than we can judge who is the winner along with top 5 runner-ups.

To return the ranking in descending order, follow below given steps:-

• Enter the formula in cell D2
• =RANK(C2,C2:C20,0)
• Press Enter
• Copy formula in the range

We can see the ranking in column D. Rank 1 is appearing in front of Driscoll, his sales amount is high among all of the employees

Now we will highlight to winner with Green color and top 5 runner up with yellow color, follow below steps:-

• Go to Home tab > Styles > Conditional Formatting
• New Formatting rule’s dialog box will open
• Click on Use a formula to determine which cells to format
• Enter the formula =$D2=1

• Apply formatting =$A:$1:$D$20 and click on Apply

• Winner’s row will get highlighted

To highlight the top 5 runner up, follow below steps:-

• Go to Home tab > Styles > Conditional Formatting
• New Formatting rule’s dialog box will open
• Click on Use a formula to determine which cells to format
• Enter the formula =OR($D2=2,$D2=3,$D2=4,$D2=5,$D2=6)
• Click on OK

• Apply formatting =$A:$1:$D$20 and click on Apply

• Top 5 runner rows will get highlighted with yellow color

This is the way we can use rank formula in our data to show the winner or loser in Microsoft Excel.

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