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The formula =MAX(B3:B9) yields the largest numeric value contained in any of the cells in the range B3:B9.
=MIN(B3:B9), correspondingly, yields the smallest numeric value in that same cell range.
Of course, the arguments to MIN and MAX may be literal numbers as well as cell references. For example: Suppose cell A8 contains the outstanding balance, in dollars, on a credit card. The minimum monthly payment is $15 or 2% of the balance, whichever is larger. Then the minimum monthly payment, in dollars, can be computed as =MAX(15,A8*0.02).
Warning! MAX and MIN cannot be used to compare text! Every cell whose value is a text string (e.g., "1997) is ignored. This means that if you inadvertently include text in the range of cells given as an argument to MAX or MIN, the resulting value may not be what you expect.
IF is one of the logical functions, which is to say that it deals with neither numbers nor text, but with TRUEness and FALSEness.
The form of the IF function is:
IF ( condition , value_if_true , value_if_false )
(Remember that the elements inside the parentheses are just placeholders.)
The condition argument must be an expression whose value is either TRUE or FALSE. If it's TRUE, the function returns value_if_true as its value. Otherwise it returns value_if_false.
For example, =IF (A8 < 1000, "OK", "Oh no!") will yield the text value OK if our current credit card balance is under $1000.00, or Oh no! if it's over.
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