Range, a calculation used in mathematics (primarily in statistics), is the difference between the highest and lowest values in a set of data. It can also be defined as the area of variation between the upper and lower limits of a data sample.

To calculate the range of a data set, you must first order the data set in ascending numerical order. Once the values are numerically ordered, you take the highest value, the upper limit, and subtract the lowest value, the lower limit to obtain your range. This calculation is fairly straightforward and is one of the easier measures of central tendency to calculate.

For an illustrative example, let’s say we have a set of data containing the number of movie tickets sold each day in the past week for the latest summer blockbuster.

The data set is as follows: [20,9,13,35,42,15,18]. First, you must rearrange the data set is numerical order, giving us the following: [9,13,15,18,20,35,42]. After the data set is in order, we must take the highest value, 42, and subtract the lowest value, 9. In this example, 42-9 is 33. 33 is the range of this sample data.

To use our range calculator, simply enter your data set with all values separated by commas and no spaces. For example: 3,16,2,7,5. This range calculator will automatically numerically order your data set so there is no need to input your data in a certain order.