Modified 'Max' formula?

I have 2 columns - Year and amount

Column 1(year) can have multiple years in any order
Column 2 (Amount) will just show the value

I need to pull back the large value, which I can do by usingthe Max or Large formula. However, I need to pull back the largest value for each year e.g. for 2010, 2009, 2008 etc

Any help mych appreciated.

Cheers

something like:

=MAX(IF($A$2:$A$100=2010,$B$2:$B$100))

adjust the ranges to suit and the confirm with CTRL+SHIFT+ENTER not just ENTER. You will see { } brackets appear around the formula.

Note: You can replace the 2010 with a reference to the year in a cell.

You can also do this with a Pivot Table, I believe.