The Excel FINV Function

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Related Function:

FDIST

FINV and F.INV.RT

In Excel 2010, the Finv function has been replaced by the F.Inv.Rt function, which has improved accuracy.

Although it has been replaced, the Finv function is still available in Excel 2010 (stored in the list of compatibility functions), to allow compatibility with earlier versions of Excel.

Basic Description

The Excel FINV function calculates the inverse of the (right-tailed) F Probability Distribution for a supplied probability.

The format of the function is :

FINV( probability, deg_freedom1, deg_freedom2 )

Where the function arguments are:

probability	-	The probability (between 0 and 1) at which to evaluate the inverse F Probability Distribution
deg_freedom1	-	An integer specifying the numerator degrees of freedom
deg_freedom2	-	An integer specifying the denominator degrees of freedom

If either deg_freedom1 or deg_freedom2 are decimal numbers, these are truncated to integers by Excel.

The Excel Finv function is the inverse of the Excel FDIST function.

I.e. if
	FDIST( x, deg_freedom1, deg_freedom2 ) = probability
then
	x = FINV( probability, deg_freedom1, deg_freedom2 )

Finv Function Example

The chart on the right shows the inverse of the right-tailed F Probability Distribution with the numerator degrees of freedom equal to 1 and the denominator degrees of freedom equal to 2.

If you want to use Excel to calculate the value of this function for a probability equal to 0.2, this can be done by the Finv function, as follows:

=FINV( 0.2, 1, 2 )

This gives the result 3.555555556.

Plot of the Inverse F Probability Distribution with numerator degrees of freedom = 1 and denominator degrees of freedom = 2

Inverse F Prob. Dist. with deg_freedom1 = 1 & deg_freedom2 = 2

Further information and examples of the Excel Finv function can be found on the Microsoft Office website.

Trouble Shooting

If you get an error from the Excel Finv function this is likely to be one of the following :

Common Errors

#NUM!

Occurs if either:

-	the supplied probability value is ≤ 0 or > 1
or
-	the supplied deg_freedom1 or the deg_freedom2 argument is < 1 or ≥ 10^10

#VALUE!

Occurs if any of the supplied arguments are non-numeric

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