The Excel MULTINOMIAL Function

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Basic Description

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The Excel MULTINOMIAL function returns the ratio of the factorial of a sum of supplied values to the product of factorials of those values.

I.e.

The format of the Multinomial function is:

MULTINOMIAL( number1, number2, ... )

where the supplied number arguments are the integer values for which you want to calculate the multinomial. If any of the supplied values are decimals, these are truncated to integers.

Note that, in Excel 2007 and Excel 2010, you can supply up to 255 values to the Multinomial function, but in Excel 2003, you can only supply up to 29 values.

Example

Cell B1 of the spreadsheet below shows an the Excel Multinomial Function, used to calculate the multinomial of the values 3, 1, 2 and 5, in column A of the spreadsheet.

The above example shows that the multinomial of the values 3, 1, 2 and 5 is 27,720.

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

Trouble Shooting

If you get an error from the Excel Multinomial Function, this is likely to be one of the following:

Common Errors

#NUM!

Occurs if any of the supplied arguments are less than 0

#VALUE!

Occurs if any of the supplied arguments are non-numeric

#NAME?

Occurs when Analysis ToolPak add-in is not enabled in your Excel.
You will need to enable the add-in if you want to use the Excel Multinomial function.

To do this in Excel 2003 :

From the Tools drop-down menu, select the option Add-Ins ...
An 'Add-Ins' window will pop up. From this, select the option Analysis ToolPak and click OK

To do this in Excel 2007 :

Click the Microsoft button on the top left of your spreadsheet and select the Excel Options button
From the menu on the left hand side, select Add-Ins
In the 'Manage:' box, select Excel Add-ins and click Go...
An 'Add-Ins' window will pop up. From this, select the option Analysis ToolPak and click OK