Excel MINA Function

Like the MIN function, the MINA function returns the smallest numeric value in a supplied set of data. For example, the MINA function can return the lowest test score, the fastest time in a race, the lowest temperature, or the smallest sales number. Arguments can be provided as constants, or as cell references or ranges:

=MINA(5,10)
=MINA(A1,A2,A3)
-MINA(A1:A10)

The primary difference between MIN and MINA is that MINA evaluates TRUE and FALSE values as 1 and 0 respectively. Microsoft documentation also claims the MINA function evaluates numbers entered as text. But I have not been able to reproduce this behavior unless the number is typed directly into the list of arguments, in which case MINA and MINA both seem to evaluate the number:

=MINA("5",10) // returns 5
=MIN("5",10) // also returns 5

However, if  A1 contains "5" (5 entered as text), and A2 contains 10, we see:

=MINA(A1,A2) // returns 0
=MIN(A1,A2) // returns 10

Please contact me if you can explain this behavior :)

Notes:

• The MINA function ignores empty cells.
• The MINA function in current versions of Excel accepts up to 255 arguments. If arguments contain no numbers, MINA returns 0.
• Arguments can be provided as numbers, names, arrays, or references that contain numbers.
• The MINA function evaluates TRUE and FALSE values as 1 and 0 respectively.