Which function would you use to calculate the average of a dataset?

The AVERAGE() function is specifically designed to calculate the mean of a set of numbers in Excel. When you apply this function to a dataset, it sums all the values in that dataset and then divides the total by the number of values. This allows you to obtain a single representative number indicating the central tendency of the data, which is precisely the goal when looking to find the average.

In contrast, the SUM() function simply adds all of the numbers together, while the COUNT() function counts how many numbers are in a dataset without calculating their average. The MEDIAN() function, on the other hand, finds the middle value in a sorted dataset, which is a different statistic from the average. As a result, using the AVERAGE() function is the appropriate choice for calculating the average of a dataset.