Ranking with Tie Breaker (Final Rank Needs to be Whole Number)

[rich_tbone]

I am having trouble figuring out how to create ranks in the Overall Placement column in the event of there being a tie for the total score (see cells J4 and J18). Ranking is determined by total score (column J) and then by music score (column D). While I have found some solutions for splitting ties, I have not been able to find anything where the final ranking is a whole number. Another words, in the example School 1 should be ranked 2nd and School 12 should be ranked 3rd. Any ideas? Thanks!

Sample Band Competition Recap Sheet.xls

[martindwilson]

you can add the music score divided by say 1000 to the total score then rank that but if music scores and total scores are the same it will still rank the same

[rich_tbone]

Thanks! It seems this would work. I would just need to hide column L.

One quick question, as I would like to actually learn from this. What do the parenthesis mean in the following formula used?

=IF(L4="","",RANK(L4,$L$4:$L$19))

Just spelling out the logic of this formula in plain English would likely be enough.

[martindwilson]

if l4 is blank return blank.. it hides the #n/a if the cell cannot be ranked