# how can I find out the highest and lowest expression values?

**URL:** <https://help.galaxyproject.org/t/how-can-i-find-out-the-highest-and-lowest-expression-values/9105>\
**Category:** usegalaxy.eu support\
**Tags:** text-manipulation\
**Created:** [November 28, 2022, 5:38pm UTC](https://help.galaxyproject.org/t/how-can-i-find-out-the-highest-and-lowest-expression-values/9105 "2022-11-28T17:38:03Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![maryam-gh99](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/help.galaxyproject.org/maryam-gh99/32/4431_2.png) [@maryam-gh99](https://help.galaxyproject.org/u/maryam-gh99)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2022, 5:38pm UTC](https://help.galaxyproject.org/t/how-can-i-find-out-the-highest-and-lowest-expression-values/9105/1 "2022-11-28T17:38:03Z")

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Hello, how can I find out the highest and lowest expression values in a large matrix of single cell gene expression data whose number of columns and rows is greater than 1000?

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**Author:** ![jennaj](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/help.galaxyproject.org/jennaj/32/27_2.png) [@jennaj](https://help.galaxyproject.org/u/jennaj)\
**Post date:** [November 28, 2022, 8:07pm UTC](https://help.galaxyproject.org/t/how-can-i-find-out-the-highest-and-lowest-expression-values/9105/2 "2022-11-28T20:07:49Z")

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Hi @maryam-gh99

You could **Sort** the file by a specific column. Consider removing any header lines first, as you can always add one back in (exact or just parts of it) later on and some tools might complain about it.

This tutorial has a similar method described.

> **[Galaxy Training: Galaxy 101](https://training.galaxyproject.org/training-material/topics/introduction/tutorials/galaxy-intro-101/tutorial.html#sort-the-exons-by-snps-count)**
>
> Galaxy is a scientific workflow, data integration, and da...

And this tutorial includes a bunch of data manipulation methods. Most are “UNIX utility” or “spreadsheet functions” analogues and definitely work on larger tabular text files.

> **[Galaxy Training: Data Manipulation Olympics](https://training.galaxyproject.org/training-material/topics/introduction/tutorials/data-manipulation-olympics/tutorial.html#cheatsheet)**
>
> Galaxy is a scientific workflow, data integration, and da...

Hope that helps!

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**Author:** ![maryam-gh99](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/flex020/user_avatar/help.galaxyproject.org/maryam-gh99/32/4431_2.png) [@maryam-gh99](https://help.galaxyproject.org/u/maryam-gh99)\
**Post date:** [December 3, 2022, 3:04pm UTC](https://help.galaxyproject.org/t/how-can-i-find-out-the-highest-and-lowest-expression-values/9105/3 "2022-12-03T15:04:24Z")

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> [@jennaj](#):
>
> Hi @maryam-gh99
> 
> You could **Sort** the file by a specific column. Consider removing any header lines first, as you can always add one back in (exact or just parts of it) later on and some tools might complain about it.
> 
> This tutorial has a similar method described.

Thank you for your guidance