The Excel CHISQ.DIST Function
Function Description
The Excel Chisq.Dist function calculates the Probability Density Function or the Cumulative Distribution Function for the Chi-Square Distribution.
The function is new in Excel 2010 and so is not available in earlier versions of Excel.
The syntax of the Chisq.Dist function is:
CHISQ.DIST( x, degrees_freedom, cumulative )
where the function arguments are:
| x | - | The value at which the chi-square distribution is to be evaluated (must be ≥ 0). | ||||||
| degrees_freedom | - |
The number of degrees of freedom (must be an integer between 1 and 1010). (If the supplied value is a decimal, this is truncated to an integer). |
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| cumulative | - |
A logical argument that specifies the type of chi-square distribution to be calculated. This can be either:
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Chisq.Dist Function Examples
Example 1 - Probability Density Function
Chi-Square Probability Density Dist. with 1, 2 & 3 degrees of freedom
The above chart on the right shows the probability density function for the chi-square distribution with 1, 2 & 3 degrees of freedom.
If you want to calculate the value of any of these functions for a specified value of x, this can be done using the Chisq.Dist function.
For example, the value of the probability density function with 2 degrees of freedom, at x = 3 is calculated by the following function:
=CHISQ.DIST( 3, 2, FALSE )
This gives the result 0.11156508.
Example 2 - Cumulative Distribution Function
Chi-Square Cumulative Distribution with 1, 2 & 3 degrees of freedom
The above chart on the right shows the Chi-Square Cumulative Distribution function with 1, 2, & 3 degrees of freedom.
If you want to calculate the value of any of these functions for a specified value of x, this can be done using the Chisq.Dist function.
For example, the chi-square cumulative distribution with 2 degrees of freedom, at the value x = 3, is calculated by the following:
=CHISQ.DIST( 3, 2, TRUE )
This gives the result 0.77686984.
For further details and examples of the Excel Chisq.Dist function, see the Microsoft Office website.
Chisq.Dist Function Errors
If you get an error from the Excel Chisq.Dist function this is likely to be one of the following:
Common Errors
| #NUM! | - |
Occurs if either:
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| #VALUE! | - | Occurs if any of the supplied arguments is non-numeric. |