Max function

Luis_Maximo  wrote:  ``the [MAX] function does not recognize the data as numbers but rather as formulas soon the result gives zero``

I think you misinterpret the problem.

There is no problem with MAX referring to a cell that contains a numeric formula.   For example:

A1: =IF(TRUE, 1, 10)

B1: =IF(FALSE, 2, 20)

C1: =MAX(A1,B1) returns 20.

In your case, I suspect that the problem is:  the data is text, not numeric.

Looks can be deceiving, and the format of the cell does not matter.  Use formulas of the form =ISTEXT(A1) to confirm that A1 is text.

If you are unsure about how to fix the problem -- that is, to be sure that the data is numeric -- please provide concrete examples that demonstrate the problem.  Ideally, attach an Excel file.

As a wild guess, a common mistake is to write my example above as

=IF(FALSE, "2", "20")

The double-quotes around the numbers cause the result to be strings, not numeric values.

In that case, the fix is to remove the double-quotes around values that are intended to be numeric