How do I differentiate between duplicate ranks?

I need to graph information that is based on a ranked table. A vlookup
function finds information based on ranks 1-15 from one column, however when
the data is the same Excel assigns duplicate ranks. This then does not allow
an average or trend line to be calculated accurately, because the missing
data (for example, rank 4) returns a score of #N/A due to there being two
scores for rank 3, leaving the next rank available being 5.

Assuming the scores are in A1:A7, enter this in cell B1 and copy down.

=RANK(A1,A$1:A$7)+COUNTIF(A$1:A1,A1)-1


"Pez" wrote:

> I need to graph information that is based on a ranked table. A vlookup
> function finds information based on ranks 1-15 from one column, however when
> the data is the same Excel assigns duplicate ranks. This then does not allow
> an average or trend line to be calculated accurately, because the missing
> data (for example, rank 4) returns a score of #N/A due to there being two
> scores for rank 3, leaving the next rank available being 5.