How to use this range calculator
Enter your dataset above and press Calculate. The range, minimum and maximum appear together. The range is meaningless without its endpoints.
What is the range?
The range is the simplest measure of spread in statistics: the largest value minus the smallest. It takes two seconds to compute and one glance to understand, which earns it a permanent place in first-pass data checks despite its crudeness.
A week of afternoon temperatures: 31, 34, 29, 36, 33, 30, 32 °C. The range is 36 − 29 = 7 °C. One sentence, "afternoons varied across a 7-degree band this week", and anyone planning around the weather has the essential fact.
The range's weakness (and why the IQR exists)
The range trusts exactly two values: the most extreme ones. Add one freak reading (a thermometer left in the sun at 48 °C) and the range leaps to 19 while the weather barely changed. That fragility is why statisticians pair location with sturdier spreads: the interquartile range for the middle half, or the standard deviation for a typical distance. Use the range for a first look and quality checks ("is any value outside the possible range?"), not as your final word on spread.
Frequently asked questions
How do you find the range in statistics?
Subtract the smallest value from the largest. For 29 to 36, the range is 7.
Can the range be zero?
Yes. When every value in the dataset is identical, maximum equals minimum and the range is 0.
Why is the range not enough on its own?
It depends entirely on the two most extreme values, so a single outlier can inflate it. The IQR and standard deviation describe spread more reliably.