max of non adjacent columns

[pytelium]

I have 12 columns with numbers,these numbers change very rapidly as they
are fed into the sheet from a website.
I need a formula to calculate the max of the numbers in every second
column,for the first row this would be the numbers in cells
B1,d1,f1,h1,j1,l1.
The answer will be stored in another cell,and of course will be
constantly changing as the contents of these cells change.

 

[Bernard Liengme]

What is wrong with MAX(B1,D1,F1,H1,J1,I1) ?
As you copy it down the column it will adjust to (on row 2)
MAX(B2,D2,F2,H2,J2,I2)
best wishes

 

[Peo Sjoblom]

=MAX((MOD(COLUMN(B1:L1),2)=0)*(B1:L1))

entered with ctrl + shift & enter

 

[pytelium]

Yes,both these solutions work.Thank you. I have a related question. I
want to create an IF statement to print True if the largest of the six
cells is more than 5 times the second largest,otherwise print false.

 

[Bernard Liengme]

Always better to start a new thread when you have a new question.
Either =IF(MAX(A1:A6)>5*LARGE(A1:A6,2),"True","False")
or =MAX(A1:A6)>5*LARGE(A1:A6,2)
The first gives a text result, the second a Boolean TRUE/FALSE result
BTW: formulas "return" or "display" results; not "print"
best wishes

 

[Dave Peterson]

=large() can return the largest (max), second largest, ... value from a range.

But since your range is discontiguous, you have to be careful when you use it:

=MAX(B1,D1,F1,H1,I1,J1)>(5*LARGE((B1,D1,F1,H1,I1,J1),2))

watch those parentheses inside the large function.

 

[pytelium]

Thanks Dave and Bernard