{ "category": "Statistical functions", "display_name": "MINA", "entry_kind": "built_in_function", "eval_api": { "method": "POST", "url": "https://handbook.dnacalc.com/api/eval" }, "function_id": "FUNC.MINA", "implementation_state": { "answer_bank": { "excel_builds": [ "20430" ], "larger_numeric": 0, "last_bit": 0, "matched": 1212, "other_mismatch": 0, "refused": 0, "rows": 1212, "unread": 0, "worst_ulp": 0 }, "detail": "Recorded: 1,212 in the answer bank and 15 workbook cells.", "dnacalc_commit": "9e1884369a678158dd82d3d74188daf986995e87", "in_catalogue": true, "state": "matches", "state_label": "Matches every recorded Excel answer", "summary": "Matches all 1,227 recorded answers", "workbook_corpus": { "cells": 15, "matched": 15 } }, "implementations": [ { "commit": "9e1884369a678158dd82d3d74188daf986995e87", "flavour": "excel-compatibility-candidate", "language": "Rust", "name": "CalcFunc", "own_code": [ "https://github.com/DnaCalc/DnaCalc/blob/9e1884369a678158dd82d3d74188daf986995e87/crates/calc-func/src/catalogue/aggregate.rs#L115-L115", "https://github.com/DnaCalc/DnaCalc/blob/9e1884369a678158dd82d3d74188daf986995e87/crates/calc-func/src/catalogue/aggregate.rs#L269-L275" ], "repository": "https://github.com/DnaCalc/DnaCalc", "shared_code": [ "catalogue/aggregate::aggregate", "catalogue/aggregate::extreme", "catalogue/aggregate::holds_held_arrays", "catalogue/aggregate::read_held_references", "catalogue/aggregate::number_of", "catalogue/aggregate::each_value", "catalogue/aggregate::read_values", "catalogue/aggregate::reader", "catalogue/aggregate::read_reference", "catalogue/comparison::overflow_numbers", "catalogue/comparison::numbers", "catalogue/comparison::in_band", "catalogue/comparison::Rounded::up", "catalogue/comparison::Roundings::of", "catalogue/comparison::Roundings::disjoint", "decimal::low32", "decimal::Natural::from_u64", "decimal::Natural::pow10", "decimal::Natural::normalize", "decimal::Natural::is_zero", "decimal::Natural::mul_add_small", "decimal::Natural::times_pow10", "decimal::Natural::times_pow5", "decimal::Natural::times_pow2", "decimal::ExactDecimal::binary" ], "source": "https://github.com/DnaCalc/DnaCalc/blob/9e1884369a678158dd82d3d74188daf986995e87/crates/calc-func/src/catalogue/aggregate.rs#L115-L115", "state": "matches", "suite": null, "summary": "Matches all 1,227 recorded answers" } ], "json_url": "https://handbook.dnacalc.com/api/functions/FUNC.MINA.json", "name": "MINA", "notes": [], "schema": "efh.function-reference/v1", "section_order": [ "what-it-does", "try-it", "quirks", "how-to-implement", "version-differences", "alternatives" ], "sections": { "alternatives": "\n### Relationships\n\n- **[MIN](FUNC.MIN.md)** — the numbers-only sibling, whose own documentation names `MINA` as\n the remedy for wanting logicals and numeric text counted, and whose page carries the same\n empty-set divergence finding. `MINA`'s page returns the favour: \"To exclude logical values and\n text representations from calculations, use the MIN function instead.\"\n- **[MAXA](FUNC.MAXA.md)** — the mirror, carrying the identical documented contradiction. The\n two pages together are the evidence that the defect is editorial and family-wide.\n- **The rest of the `A` suffix family**: [AVERAGEA](FUNC.AVERAGEA.md),\n [COUNTA](FUNC.COUNTA.md), [STDEVA](FUNC.STDEVA.md), [STDEVPA](FUNC.STDEVPA.md),\n `VARA`, `VARPA`. Shared *intent*, not one shared rule.\n `COUNTA` in particular counts non-empty values without converting them. Read each page.\n- **[SMALL](FUNC.SMALL.md)** — the order-statistic selector, numbers only, and the surface to\n reach for when \"no data\" must not silently become `0`.\n- **Confused with:** `MIN`. A workbook switched from `MIN` to `MINA` to \"handle the text cells\"\n has changed the answer to `0` on every positive column containing text.\n\n\n", "how-to-implement": "\n### Numerical notes\n\n\nNo floating-point arithmetic beyond the conversions, so no rounding error to analyse. Three\nobservations are worth recording.\n\n**The zero clamp is directional, and its direction is the bad one.** `MAXA`'s clamp only bites\non all-negative data; `MINA`'s bites on all-positive data, which is the common shape. Combined\nwith the no-values rule, `MINA` reaches `0` by two independent routes, so a hierarchical\n`MINA`-of-`MINA`s over positive data reports `0` if **any** column is empty or contains **any**\ntext. An implementer must track \"have I seen an admissible value\" as a flag separate from the\nrunning best and must not initialise the accumulator to `0`.\n\n", "quirks": "\n### The coercion table, and a contradiction in it\n\n\n| Value | Typed **directly** into the argument list | Reached inside an **array or reference** |\n|---|---|---|\n| Number | counted | counted |\n| `TRUE` | counted as 1 | counted as 1 |\n| `FALSE` | counted as 0 | counted as 0 |\n| Text that reads as a number | counted as its numeric value | **see below** |\n| Text that does not read as a number | **error** | **see below** |\n| Empty cell | — | ignored |\n| Error value | error | error |\n\n**The two \"see below\" cells are a documented contradiction, and the Handbook publishes it as a\nfinding rather than choosing a side.** Microsoft's `MINA` page asserts both of the following\nabout text inside a reference:\n\n1. \"Arguments that contain text or FALSE evaluate as 0 (zero).\"\n2. \"Empty cells and text values in the array or reference are ignored.\"\n\nThese cannot both hold. If text evaluates as `0` it is counted and drags the minimum down to\nzero on all-positive data; if it is ignored, the minimum of an all-positive column stays\npositive. The two readings differ on exactly the case that distinguishes `MINA` from `MIN`, and\nthey can differ by the entire magnitude of the data.\n\nThe same contradiction appears verbatim on the [MAXA](FUNC.MAXA.md) page, which is evidence that\nit is a family-wide editorial defect in the documentation rather than a per-function slip.\n\nWhat can be said without observing Excel:\n\n- Rule 1 is the one that gives `MINA` a reason to exist as a separate function. Under rule 2\n applied to text, `MINA` and `MIN` would differ only on logicals in references.\n- Microsoft's own `MIN` page points at `MINA` as the way to \"include logical values and text\n representations of numbers in a reference as part of the calculation\", which is consistent\n with rule 1.\n- Nothing in the Handbook's record settles it. The probe is one cell wide and is first on the\n list below.\n\n\n\n### Result and edge cases\n\n\nReturns `Number`. The result need not be one of the inputs, because text and `FALSE` are\nconverted rather than selected.\n\n- **An all-text column.** Under rule 1 the answer is `0`; under rule 2 it is the no-values case,\n also `0`. The two readings coincide here, so this input does **not** discriminate between\n them. The discriminating input is an all-positive numeric column with one text cell.\n- **`TRUE` in a reference** counts as `1`, which is the family's undisputed purpose and the\n cleanest observable difference from `MIN`. On data all greater than 1, a stray `TRUE` becomes\n the minimum.\n- **Arrays** are consumed by scanning, not lifted elementwise.\n\n\n\n### Errors\n\n\n| Error | Condition | Basis |\n|---|---|---|\n| `#VALUE!` | A directly-passed argument is text that cannot be translated into a number | Documented on Microsoft's `MINA` page |\n| propagated | An argument is an error value | Documented (\"arguments that are error values … cause errors\") |\n\nNo documented `#NUM!`, `#DIV/0!` or empty-input error; the documented empty-input answer is `0`.\n\n\n", "sources": "- Handbook [MIN](FUNC.MIN.md) — the numbers-only sibling and the shared empty-set divergence\n finding.\n- Handbook [MAXA](FUNC.MAXA.md) — the mirror, carrying the identical documented contradiction.\n- Handbook [Coercion and lifting](../model/02-coercion-and-lifting.md) — the direct-argument\n versus range-scan asymmetry.\n- Handbook projections `data/functions/FUNC.MINA.json` (arity 1–255, `xlfMina` code 363,\n `AggregateDirectAndRangeDualPolicy`, `ReductionFold`, `SequentialLeftFold`) and\n `data/presence/FUNC.MINA.json` (module `mina_fn.rs`, unshared, no defect stream named).\n\n", "version-differences": "The recorded environments below distinguish a reading from a same-input comparison. Counts describe captured inputs in each environment; overlapping captures and comparisons are not totals of unique worksheet calls.\n\n| Excel 16.0 build | Platform and CPU | Captured inputs |\n|---|---|---:|\n| 20430 | Windows, 64-bit, CPU not recorded | 1,212 |\n\nThe record contains no same-input comparison between these environments. Reading different inputs on different builds does not establish either a version change or cross-build agreement.\n\n[Recorded environments and comparison details](https://github.com/DnaCalc/ExcelFunctionsHandbook/blob/5dc75391aa5125ccc5abdb095da85950980d6fd8/content/evidence/environments/FUNC.MINA.json).", "what-it-does": "\n`MINA(value1, [value2], …)` returns the smallest value in a set, where **logical values and\ntext are converted to numbers rather than skipped**.\n\n- \"Arguments can be the following: numbers; names, arrays, or references that contain numbers;\n text representations of numbers; or logical values, such as TRUE and FALSE, in a reference.\"\n- \"Arguments that contain TRUE evaluate as 1; arguments that contain text or FALSE evaluate as\n 0 (zero).\"\n- \"If an argument is an array or reference, only values in that array or reference are used.\n Empty cells and text values in the array or reference are ignored.\"\n- \"If the arguments contain no values, MINA returns 0.\"\n- \"Arguments that are error values or text that cannot be translated into numbers cause\n errors.\"\n\n**The consequence that dominates this function.** Because text and `FALSE` convert to `0`\nrather than being skipped, `MINA` can never exceed `0` once any text or `FALSE` is present. And\nbecause most spreadsheet data is positive — prices, quantities, durations, distances, counts —\nthat is not an edge case, it is the ordinary case. A column of positive measurements with one\n`\"n/a\"` typed into it has `MINA` equal to `0`, and the `0` appears nowhere in the data.\n\n`MINA` is therefore **not a selector** in the sense `MIN` is: its result need not be one of its\ninputs. It is the mirror of [MAXA](FUNC.MAXA.md)'s zero clamp, and it is the worse of the two,\nbecause the direction of the clamp points into the region where real data lives.\n\n\n\n### Arguments\n\n\n| Argument | Meaning | Notes |\n|---|---|---|\n| `value1` | The first value | \"Value1 is required\" |\n| `value2, …` | Further values | Optional; \"1 to 255 values\" |\n\nArgument boundaries carry no meaning; all slots pool into one reduction.\n\n\n" }, "signature": { "display": "MINA(value1, [value2], ...)", "parameters": [ { "description": null, "name": "value1", "optional": false, "repeats": false }, { "description": null, "name": "value2", "optional": true, "repeats": true } ], "trailing_repeats": true }, "sources": { "metadata": { "admission": { "label": "implemented", "reason": null }, "arity": { "max": 255, "min": 1 }, "category": "Statistical functions", "classification": { "arg_preparation_profile": "ValuesOnlyPreAdapter", "coercion_lift_profile": "AggregateDirectAndRangeDualPolicy", "determinism_class": "Deterministic", "error_collapse_profile": "ReductionFold", "fec_dependency_profile": "None", "host_interaction_class": "None", "kernel_signature_class": "NumsToNum", "rich_value_usage": "RichBlind", "surface_fec_dependency_profile": "RefOnly", "thread_safety_class": "SafePure", "volatility_class": "NonVolatile" }, "descriptions": { "long": null, "short": "Smallest value, counting text as 0 and logical values as 1 or 0", "short_source": "dna-calc-own" }, "docs": { "english_description": "Returns the smallest value in a list of arguments, including numbers, text, and logical values", "microsoft_url": "https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/mina-function-245a6f46-7ca5-4dc7-ab49-805341bc31d3" }, "entry_kind": "built_in_function", "localized_family_names": null, "localized_names": [ { "locale": "ar-SA", "name": "MINA" }, { "locale": "bg-BG", "name": "MINA" }, { "locale": "cs-CZ", "name": "MINA" }, { "locale": "da-DK", "name": "MINV" }, { "locale": "de-DE", "name": "MINA" }, { "locale": "el-GR", "name": "MINA" }, { "locale": "en-AU", "name": "MINA" }, { "locale": "en-GB", "name": "MINA" }, { "locale": "en-US", "name": "MINA" }, { "locale": "es-ES", "name": "MINA" }, { "locale": "et-EE", "name": "MINA" }, { "locale": "fi-FI", "name": "MINA" }, { "locale": "fr-FR", "name": "MINA*" }, { "locale": "he-IL", "name": "MINA" }, { "locale": "hr-HR", "name": "MINA" }, { "locale": "hu-HU", "name": "MIN2" }, { "locale": "id-ID", "name": "MINA" }, { "locale": "it-IT", "name": "MINA" }, { "locale": "ja-JP", "name": "MINA" }, { "locale": "ko-KR", "name": "MINA" }, { "locale": "lt-LT", "name": "MINA" }, { "locale": "lv-LV", "name": "MINA" }, { "locale": "nb-NO", "name": "MINA" }, { "locale": "nl-NL", "name": "MINA" }, { "locale": "pl-PL", "name": "MIN.A" }, { "locale": "pt-BR", "name": "MINA" }, { "locale": "pt-PT", "name": "MÍNIMOA" }, { "locale": "ro-RO", "name": "MINA" }, { "locale": "ru-RU", "name": "МИНА" }, { "locale": "sk-SK", "name": "MINA" }, { "locale": "sl-SI", "name": "MINA" }, { "locale": "sr-Latn-RS", "name": "MINA" }, { "locale": "sv-SE", "name": "MINA" }, { "locale": "th-TH", "name": "MINA" }, { "locale": "tr-TR", "name": "MİNA işlevi" }, { "locale": "uk-UA", "name": "MINA" }, { "locale": "vi-VN", "name": "MINA" }, { "locale": "zh-CN", "name": "MINA" }, { "locale": "zh-HK", "name": "MINA" }, { "locale": "zh-TW", "name": "MINA" } ], "signature": { "display": "MINA(value1, [value2], ...)", "parameters": [ { "description": null, "name": "value1", "optional": false, "repeats": false }, { "description": null, "name": "value2", "optional": true, "repeats": true } ], "trailing_repeats": true }, "surface_name": "MINA", "version_marker": null, "xlcall": { "code": "363", "symbol": "xlfMina" } }, "microsoft": "https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/office/mina-function-245a6f46-7ca5-4dc7-ab49-805341bc31d3" }, "try_it": { "formula": "=MINA(1)" }, "url": "https://handbook.dnacalc.com/functions/MINA.html", "variants": [], "versions": [ { "behaviour": "1,212 captured inputs are indexed for this environment. Capture dates: 2026-09-29 to 2026-09-29. This is a reading count, not a comparison with another build.", "excel_build": "16.0 build 20430", "platform": "Windows, 64-bit, CPU not recorded", "sources": [ "https://github.com/DnaCalc/ExcelFunctionsHandbook/blob/5dc75391aa5125ccc5abdb095da85950980d6fd8/content/evidence/environments/FUNC.MINA.json" ] } ] }