Before we look at some examples of the AGGREGATE function in use, let’s see how it works. The AGGREGATE function has two syntaxes—one for references and one for arrays—though you don’t need to get yourself tied up in knots over which one you’re using, as Excel selects the relevant one depending on the arguments you input. You can see both syntaxes in use when I show you some examples soon.

The Reference Form Syntax

The syntax for the reference form of the AGGREGATE function is:

=AGGREGATE(a,b,c,d)

where

• a (required) is a number that represents the function you want to use in the calculation,
• b (required) is a number that defines what you want the calculation to ignore,
• c (required) is the range of cells on which the function will be applied, and
• d (optional) is the first of up to 252 additional arguments that specify further ranges.

The Array Form Syntax

On the other hand, if you’re working with arrays, the syntax is:

=AGGREGATE(a,b,c,d)

where

• a (required) is a number that represents the function you want to use in the calculation,
• b (required) is a number that defines what you want the calculation to ignore,
• c (required) is the array of values on which the function will be applied, and
• d is the second argument required by array functions like LARGE, SMALL, PERCENTILE.INC, and others.

Functions and Exclusions (Arguments a and b)

When entering arguments a and b in either syntax form above, you’ll have various options to choose from.

The table below shows the different functions you can use in the AGGREGATE calculation (argument a). Even though you might be tempted to type the function name, remember that this argument must be a number that represents the function you want to use. Functions 1 to 13 are for use with the reference form syntax, and functions 14 to 19 are for use with the array form syntax.

This table lists the numbers you can input to exclude certain values when creating your AGGREGATE formula (argument b):

Now, let’s look at some examples of how you can use the AGGREGATE function in real-world scenarios.

Example 1: Using AGGREGATE to ignore errors

This Excel spreadsheet contains a list of soccer players, the number of games they’ve played, the number of goals they’ve scored, and their game-per-goal ratios. Your aim is to work out the average game-per-goal ratio for all the players combined.

If you were to use the AVERAGE function alone by typing:

=AVERAGE(Player_Goals[Games per goal])

into cell C1, this would return an error, because the referenced range contains #DIV/0! errors.

Instead, using the AGGREGATE function gives you the option to ignore these errors and return the average for the remaining data. To do this, in cell C2, you need to type:

=AGGREGATE(1,6,Player_Goals[Games per goal])

where

• 1 (argument a) represents the AVERAGE function,
• 6 (argument b) tells Excel to ignore errors, and
• Player_Goals[Games per goal] is the reference.

An alternative way to achieve the same outcome would be to use the IFERROR function in column D to replace any errors with a blank value.

Example 2: Using AGGREGATE to Ignore Hidden Rows (Reference)

Using the same spreadsheet, your next target is to calculate the total number of goals the team has scored.

One way to display totals is to check “Total Row” in the Table Design tab on the ribbon, which places the totals at the bottom of the table. However, if you’re working with a large dataset, constantly scrolling down to see the totals could waste time. Instead, consider placing the totals at the top of the spreadsheet outside the formatted table, so that they’re always on display.

Specifically, you want to display two totals. The first is the overall total when you combine the goals scored by all players, but the second is the total of only the players showing in the table after you apply filters.

To calculate the overall total, in cell C1, type:

=SUM(Player_Goals[Goals scored])

Now, even after you apply a filter to one of the columns, such as displaying only the players who have played 15 games or more, the SUM formula you just applied still includes the rows that are filtered out.

This is where the AGGREATE function will save the day, as it allows your calculation to ignore rows that are filtered out. In fact, the AGGREGATE function would also work if you wanted to ignore rows you’ve hidden by right-clicking the row header and clicking “Hide.”

In cell C2, type:

=AGGREGATE(9,5,Player_Goals[Goals scored])

where

• 9 (argument a) represents the SUM function,
• 5 (argument b) tells Excel to ignore hidden rows, and
• Player_Goals[Goals scored] is the reference.

Now, notice that the result of this formula differs from the result of the SUM formula you used in cell C1, because it considers only the rows on display.

​​​​Example 3: Using AGGREGATE to Ignore Hidden Rows (Array)

Next, let’s say you wanted to list the two highest goal tallies for players who have played 20 games or fewer.

You could apply the filter first and then generate your formula, but for the purposes of this demonstration, let’s create the formula first.

In cell C1, type:

=AGGREGATE(14,5,Player_Goals[Goals scored],{1;2})

where

• 14 (argument a) represents the LARGE function,
• 5 (argument b) tells Excel to ignore hidden rows,
• Player_Goals[Goals scored] is the array of values, and
• {1;2} tells Excel that you want it to return the largest (1) and second-largest values (2) on separate rows (;).

When you press Enter, notice that the result is a spilled array covering cells C1 and C2 because you told Excel to return the top two values.

Now, filter the Games Played column to include only those players who have played 20 games or fewer, and see that the result of the AGGREGATE formula you entered earlier changes to ignore the hidden rows.

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To listen to music on your Windows 11 PC from a Bluetooth device, you’ll have to pair that device with your PC first. This is how your PC recognizes your device.

To do that, turn on Bluetooth on your device, like your iPhone or Android phone.

• On an iPhone, you’ll head into Settings > Bluetooth and turn on the “Bluetooth” toggle.
• On an Android phone, you’ll pull down twice from the top of the device screen and tap the “Bluetooth” tile.

On Windows 11, launch Settings by pressing Windows+i.

• From the left sidebar, choose “Bluetooth & Devices”
• On the right pane, enable “Bluetooth” if it isn’t already enabled
• Then, next to Devices, click “Add Device”

On the Add a Device window, select “Bluetooth.” Wait for your PC to detect your device. When the device appears on the list, click it to select it. When your PC says Your Device is Ready to Go!, click “Done” to close the window. Both your PC and your device are now paired.

To receive audio via Bluetooth on your Windows 11 PC, you’ll download Bluetooth Audio Receiver from the Microsoft Store. This is because Windows 11 doesn’t have a built-in feature that allows it to act as a Bluetooth speaker.

To get that app, launch Windows Search (press Windows+S), type Microsoft Store, and open the app. Click the search box at the top, type Bluetooth Audio Receiver, press Enter, and select that app on the list. Then, choose “Get” to download and install the app.

Open Windows Search again, type Bluetooth Audio Receiver, and select the app in the search results. On the app screen, select the device you want to receive audio from. This should be the device that you’ve paired with your PC earlier. After selecting the device, click the “Open Connection” button.

At the top of the device list, you’ll see a [Your Device Name] Connected message, which indicates your PC is ready to act as a Bluetooth speaker for your device.

On your device, launch a music app and start playing audio. You’ll find that the audio plays through your PC’s speakers. You can control the volume using your device’s volume control or by clicking the sound icon in your PC’s system tray and adjusting the volume level.

• When you want to stop listening to the music on your PC, access the Bluetooth Audio Receiver window and click the “Close Connection” button. Note that you don’t have to unpair your device.
• If you run into issues while trying to connect or play music on your Windows 11 PC, the following troubleshooting tips will help fix the problem.
• If you don’t see your Bluetooth device on the Add a Device window on your computer, your device is likely undiscoverable. In this case, access the pair screen on your device.

How to Troubleshoot Bluetooth Issues on Windows

• For example, on an Android phone, you’ll head into Settings > Connected Devices > Pair New Device and keep this screen open while performing the pairing process on your PC.
• If the connection is established, but your PC doesn’t play the audio, ensure you haven’t muted your PC’s speakers. To verify that, click the sound icon in your PC’s system tray and increase the volume.
• If you’re using headphones with your PC, right-click the sound icon and choose “Sound Settings.” On the open window, click “Choose Where to Play Sound” and select your headphones. This ensures your PC routes the audio to the correct output device.

If the audio breaks, ensure both your PC and your device are close to each other. This is because Bluetooth has a working range of 30 feet (10 meters). Outside of that, your devices can’t talk to each other. Also, make sure there are no obstacles between your PC and your device.

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When it comes to note-taking apps, there are several options to choose from, such as Notion, Evernote, and OneNote. While I’ve found each of these apps has its strengths, I eventually settled on Obsidian for myself, and I’ve been using for over a year now to store all my writing and journals. There are clear reasons for this.

Whether you’re a student, a researcher, or a writer, Obsidian can help with organizing information, capturing insights, and coming up with new ideas. The best feature for me is the ability to interconnect notes so that any note taken in the past can be reused and linked with newer topics, helping with remembering and retaining information. For example, if you were taking notes on Machine Learning, you could link previously learned math topics to maybe numerical computing or linear algebra.

I absolutely love Obsidian for both its functionality and visual interface. The app is built around the idea that notes should evolve over time—you start by jotting down thoughts, then gradually expand and refine them. This is made possible by a powerful set of features, such as bidirectional note linking, graph view, tagging, and note search.

These features are all designed with one primary goal: to help you take notes and easily expand upon them. For instance, with bidirectional linking, I can connect new notes to previously created ones, and then visualize these connections in the graph view. Tagging allows me to categorize my notes flexibly, without needing to organize them into specific folders. Finally, whenever I need to find notes on a particular topic, Obsidian’s search quickly locates them.

Furthermore, the app has a clean, distraction-free interface, making sure there is a simple onboarding experience for newcomers. Once you are accustomed to the app, you can explore a vast library of themes and plugins that further supercharge Obsidian.

Installing Obsidian

The three most popular ways to run Linux apps are Flatpak, Snap, and AppImage. While all three packaging formats achieve the same goal—making an app available to use—they differ in how the app runs at the OS level.

AppImage is a portable packaging format that lets users run applications without installing them on the system. It bundles all required dependencies, making it a self-contained and hassle-free way to run apps. It is quite simple to use AppImage, just download the file, run it, and delete it when no longer needed—much like Windows executables. Since AppImage doesn’t sandbox the app by default, it’s very important to download files from trusted sources.

To run Obsidian as an AppImage file, first go to obsidian.md, which is the official website for Obsidian. Download the AppImage file. Then right-click on the downloaded file and select Properties > Run as executable. Open the AppImage file and Obsidian will get loaded.

I am using Ubuntu, with GNOME desktop environment and Nautilus file browser. You might find the above settings located in a different place.

Another way to install apps on Linux is with Snap, a packaging format developed by Canonical, the company that maintains Ubuntu. Unlike AppImage, Snap installs apps on the system, so you also get seamless updates. Additionally, Snap apps run in a sandbox using AppArmor, restricting unauthorized access and offering better security.

To install Obsidian as a Snap, make sure you have Snap package manager installed. Then, type.

sudo snap install obsidian

Note that Snap might give you a warning about the obsidian package using “classic confinement.” In that case, you’ll need to add a –classic flag to the end of your command.

Then, the installation will start. Once completed, you will find Obsidian alongside other apps installed on your system.

Using Flatpak

To install Obsidian using Flatpak, first make sure you have Flatpak package manager installed. Type the following command to check. If Flatpak is already installed, you will see a version number displayed.

flatpak --version

Next, make sure you have added Flathub repository, which is the official app store for Flatpak.

flatpak remote-add --if-not-exists flathub https://flathub.org/repo/flathub.flatpakrepo

Then search for Obsidian and install it using its Application ID.

flatpak install md.obsidian.Obsidian

Optimizing Obsidian

My experience with Obsidian has been positive so far. I have tested the app extensively on multiple devices and operating systems, including Ubuntu, Windows 11, macOS, and Android. Overall, it has been reliable and fast. But that doesn’t mean the Obsidian app doesn’t have any issues. I have read a few users complaining about the Obsidian app being sluggish on Linux.

The Issue with Electron Apps

Obsidian runs on Electron, a framework that lets developers create apps for multiple operating systems using web technologies, making developing apps easier. However, if you have several Electron-based apps (like Obsidian, Discord, VS Code) running at the same time, then each app will run its own instance of Chromium, which leads to higher memory and CPU usage compared to native apps. So, you might see Obsidian slowing down under heavy use or even when used normally, depending on your PC’s resources.

Performance issues in Obsidian can arise for various reasons, such as conflicts with community plugins or the installation of certain themes. While this isn’t very common, it is still possible. I have personally encountered instances where a theme made the app feel sluggish.

If you’re experiencing slowdowns in Obsidian, the first step is to disable community plugins, especially if you have live plugins installed (e.g., Dataview, Calendar, Canvas) that consume more resources than others.

• To disable them, go to Settings > Community Plugins > toggle Restricted Mode.

Themes or CSS customizations introduce animations, and some of these can also slow down the app. To get the best performance, I suggest using a lightweight theme or switching to the default theme.

• You can do this by navigating to Settings > Appearance > Themes
• In some cases, GPU-related issues can affect performance
• Try disabling hardware acceleration by going to Settings > Appearance > toggle Hardware Acceleration.

Finally, make sure there are no large files stored in your vault. If you do have large videos or even PDFs, that can slow down indexing and make the app sluggish. To prevent this, make sure to store large files outside the Obsidian vault.

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Windows 11 offers various visual effects to enhance user experience. However, these effects use up quite a lot of PC resources, often causing older PCs to run slower. To fix that, turn off all or select effects on your system.

• To do that, launch Windows Search (press Windows+S), type View Advanced System Settings, and select the item with that name.
• On the window that opens, in the Performance section, click “Settings”
• On the Performance Options window, enable the “Adjust for Best Performance” option. This ensures you get the most performance out of your current hardware.
• If you want to choose the visual effects to disable, select the “Custom” option.
• Then, select the effects you would like to enable or disable. This gives you more control as to what remains turned on and off on your system.
• After making either change, click “Apply” followed by “OK” at the bottom.

Prevent Apps from automatically Launching on your PC’s Startup

Windows 11 automatically launches various apps when you turn on your computer. Either these apps or a user has configured these apps to automatically open on your PC’s boot. These apps can slow down your system’s performance even if you don’t use them. It’s a good idea to disable these apps.

• To do that, right-click the Windows taskbar and choose “Task Manager”
• In Task Manager, from the left sidebar, select “Startup Apps”
• In the right pane, each app whose Status column says Enabled automatically opens on your PC’s boot.
• To disable such apps, right-click an app and choose “Disable”
• Do this for all the apps you don’t want automatically launching.

Many Windows 11 updates bring bug fixes and performance improvements, allowing the operating system to run smoother on your computer. Therefore, it’s important to keep Windows up to date.

• To update your Windows 11 system, launch Settings by pressing Windows+i. From the left sidebar, choose “Windows Update.” On the right pane, click “Check for Updates”
• Allow Windows 11 to download the available updates. Then, install those updates and reboot your computer.

Update Device Drivers

Older device drivers often have bugs and performance issues, which newer versions fix. Keeping your device drivers up to date ensures Windows 11 runs smoothly on your computer.

You have multiple ways to update device drivers on your Windows 11 PC. One way is to update Windows, which automatically downloads and installs the latest drivers. Another way is to visit the device manufacturer’s site and manually download and install the drivers.

If your PC has downloaded the drivers but those drivers aren’t installed for some reason, get Device Manager to install them. To do that, launch Windows Search (press Windows+S), type Device Manager, and open the utility.

• Expand the section for your specific device, right-click the device, and choose “Update Driver”
• On the window that opens, click “Search Automatically for Drivers” to let Windows automatically find and install the available drivers.
• If you want to manually choose the folder where the drivers are located, select “Browse My Computer for Drivers.” Click “Browse” and choose your driver folder, then click “Next”

Use High-Performance Power Plan

Windows 11 offers multiple power plans and you can use the ones that suit your needs. For better system performance, switch to a high-performance plan, which is designed to help you get the most performance from your hardware.

• To make that change, open Run by pressing Windows+R. Type the following in the open box and select “OK” or press Enter:

powercfg.cpl

• On the open window, enable the “High Performance” plan.

If you don’t see that plan, in the left sidebar, click “Create a Power Plan.” On the following page, select “High Performance.” Click the “Plan Name” field and type a name for the plan. Then, choose “Next” and activate the newly created plan.

Windows 11’s widgets let you take a quick peek at various pieces of information, but these widgets are always running in the background, consuming your PC resources. If you don’t use this feature, it’s a good idea to turn it off.

• To do that, right-click the Windows taskbar and choose “Taskbar Settings”
• On the following page, in the Taskbar Items section, turn off “Widgets”
• Later, you can re-enable widgets by turning on the “Widgets” toggle.

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Quishing (QR code phishing) means embedding a malicious URL in a QR code. Rather than link to a legitimate site, the code will load a page that attempts to steal information, attempt to infect your device with malware, or perform some other harmful act.

It’s a silly-sounding name, but it presents a real threat. While we’re all aware that you shouldn’t visit disreputable websites or download unknown files, due to the nature of QR codes, there’s really no way of really knowing what’s on the other side of one. With a scan and a tap, you’re whisked away to a website that may display content you did not want to see, or redirected to a malicious file download.

It’s easy to be tricked into scanning a QR code, too: many businesses rely on third-party services and URL shorteners to create their QR codes, meaning that the embedded links won’t necessarily lead directly to their official websites. This makes it difficult to detect whether someone performing a quishing attack has tampered with a QR code.

QR codes for parking meters, restaurant payments and tip systems, and for fake promotions are being tampered with worldwide to perpetuate quishing scams, often by simply placing a sticker with a fraudulent QR over an existing official code. These trick codes then link to fake login pages and payment sites that either have you pay the scammer directly, or steal your information (which can be used to steal your money later, or push other scams).

There are a few effective steps you can take to protect yourself from quishing:

• Use the default QR code scanner that comes with your device. QR scanners from app stores have a poor track record for security and privacy
• Verify the address a QR is trying to send you to before opening the link, and avoid opening links that use URL shorteners
• When possible, avoid using QRs to pay, especially if the payment link leads to an unknown address. Keep in mind too, that fake websites often use similar sounding names to official ones, so check the spelling!
• Don’t scan random QR codes in public
• Enable privacy protection and turn off automatic downloads in your web browser
• Look at the physical QR code you’re scanning. If it has obviously been tampered with, stay clear.

If you’re creating a QR code for use in your business, there are a few ways you can make your customers comfortable and secure using it. First, consider whether you need a QR at all—forcing people to pull out their phones, fiddle with their camera, and wait for your website to load is much less convenient than a simple printed menu.

If a QR is vital to the experience, make sure it links directly to a page on your official business website. URL shorteners mask the intended destination, and are known to inject ads or redirect your QR to their own pages. You should also periodically check your physical QR codes and make sure no one tampers with them by placing a sticker of their own code over them to try and catch your customers in a quishing attack.

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