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The Excel CHISQ.DIST Function
Basic 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)
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| 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:
| TRUE | - |
calculate the cumulative distribution function |
| FALSE | - |
calculate the probability density function |
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Chisq.Dist Function Examples
Example 1 - Probability Density Function
The 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:
=CHISQ.DIST( 3, 2, FALSE )
This gives the result 0.11156508.
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Chi-Square Probability Density Dist. with 1, 2 & 3 degrees of freedom
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Example 2 - Cumulative Distribution Function
The chart on the right shows the Cumulative Chi-Square 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 cumulative chi-square 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.
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Cumulative Chi-Square Distribution with 1, 2 & 3 degrees of freedom
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Further examples of the Excel Chisq.Dist function can be found on 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
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#NUM!
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Occurs if either:
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the supplied value of x is negative
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| or | |
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the supplied degrees_freedom argument is <1 or >1010
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#VALUE!
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-
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Occurs if any of the supplied arguments are not recognised as numeric values
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