Tom’s Tutorials For Excel: Finding the Lowest Positive Number
Here’s how to return the lowest positive number in a list that has positive and negative numbers.
In the pictured example, the number 1 is returned in cell L3 because it happens to be the lowest number above par (in column C) in the list of this year’s Masters Golf Tournament final scores.
The array formula in cell L3 is =MIN(IF(C4:C50>0,C4:C50)).
Recall, an array formula is applied to a cell by simultaneously pressing the Ctrl+Shift+Enter keys, not just Enter. The curly braces are not typed in by you; Excel places them automatically when the array formula is properly applied.
If you are unfamiliar with array formulas, see my video and explanation of arrays here.
Can this be done instead of a range you use specific individual cells?
Depending on what intervening data there is between ranges, I just entered 3 lists of numbers in discontiguous ranges, with text in cells between them, and had no problem with this simple modification.
=MIN(IF(C5:I21>0,C5:I21))
It is still an array formula, applied with Ctrl+Shift+Enter outside of 365.