MINA Function (OpenOffice Calc)

• Introduced: First release not established; documented by OpenOffice.org 3.3.
• Supported in: Apache OpenOffice 4.1.16; this identifies a verified release, not a final supported version.
• Scope: Desktop Calc, English function names and semicolon-separated formulas.
• Checked: October 14, 2026. Eight reference formulas and the listed diagnostics were recalculated from generated native ODF in 4.1.16 on Linux x86-64, Build 9816. Source and independent reference calculations were also checked.

MINA returns the smallest included value after its A-function coercions. Text introduces a zero candidate and logical cells introduce 1 or 0. This can make a mixed-data minimum differ substantially from the smallest numeric measurement. Release entry.

=MINA(Value1 [; Value2; ...])

Supply numeric values, logical values, text, cell references or ranges. TRUE contributes 1 and FALSE contributes 0. Text contributes 0, including the directly supplied numeric-looking string “7”; it is not converted to seven. A genuinely empty referenced cell is ignored. A cell holding text and a cell with no content are therefore different inputs.

Enter these values at the exact addresses before using the range examples. F7 and F8 must be text; enter an apostrophe before 7 to force F8 to text. Enter TRUE() and FALSE() as logical formulas or use logical cell values. Leave the specified cells genuinely empty.

F2:F8 therefore contributes the seven numbers 1, 3, 5, 1, 0, 0, 0. G2:G5 contributes only 2, 4, 6; its final blank is not an extra observation.

The native column records the saved 4.1.16 results. The independent values use high-precision mathematics; displayed decimals are rounded to twelve places. The data setup above is required for range formulas.

Suppose F2:F8 is an imported status-and-measurement column. =MINA(F2:F8) returns 0, not 1: the two text cells and FALSE introduce zeros. Use this only if that coding is part of your model. For a minimum measured temperature, a missing or invalid reading should generally be investigated rather than silently represented by an A-function zero.

If a worksheet intentionally encodes pass/fail as TRUE/FALSE, =MINA(H2:H4) is 0 because at least one flag is FALSE. An all-TRUE nonempty list would give 1. Keep the data logical; the text word TRUE is text and would instead contribute zero.

MINA over a union of nonempty valid groups equals the smaller of their separate minima, provided the same coercion rules are used. A useful diagnostic is to compare the mixed-column result with the minimum of a cleaned numeric-only helper column. A difference often signals that text or a logical value participated.

Zero is not evidence of a measured zero. The tested =MINA(H5) also returns zero when H5 is completely empty: the source uses zero when no candidate was found. For an all-empty range, distinguish absence before using the result in a threshold rule. Conversely, zero text does not necessarily determine the minimum when a real negative value is present; a list containing −2 and text still has minimum −2.

A missing argument list produces Err:511, while a supplied blank reference produces zero. Direct “7” is zero here, so =MINA("7";2) is 0. The accepted numeric-looking string behavior should not be generalized to other products or to ordinary MIN. The listed cases establish bounded coercion behavior, not every error-cell or array variant.

These additional formulas were recalculated from the same generated ODF input. H5 is a deliberately empty cell where referenced. Error displays are retained as errors, even when an ODS numeric attribute stores zero.

min, max, AVERAGEA.

• Function-specific release entry
• A-function text-as-zero dispatch

The generated ODF input produced the informational load warning “Not all attributes could be read.” After it was acknowledged, the sheet was hard-recalculated and saved separately. Every formula identity, typed input, input label and tested result was reconciled. True empty cells were distinguished from text and logical values. This does not certify every style attribute. The separately prepared XLSX input was not executed. A deliberately stale SUM cache changed from 999999 to 3, and an uncached SUM returned 7 after hard recalculation. Native evidence covers the eight reference formulas and listed diagnostics only. Other explanatory compositions are independent mathematical checks; other releases, locales and extreme-value behavior were not established by this run.